A local TV anchorman was forced off air during a live broadcast after lambasting county officials for alleged corruption on Tuesday.

Jingzhou TV news host Cui Jianbin rounded on officials from national poverty county Fangxian for reportedly enjoying luxurious lifestyles without improving the people's lot or their own governance.

Cui's comments on the Hubei Province TV station-owned channel followed a China Central Television report that out of an annual fiscal income of 500 million yuan ($80 million), Fangxian in Hubei spent a staggering 150 million yuan on new government buildings.

Meanwhile, the CCTV show revealed that county school buildings remain dilapidated.

Officials defended the cost by arguing the buildings represented the face of the county, that should not be tarnished.

"Can you imagine these officials are not corrupt?" Cui said on the show that covers Hubei and Hunan provinces.

"The mindset of these people enjoying comparative luxury while ignoring anti-graft campaign supervision should get the hell out," he said.

Cui was apparently stopped  by someone outside the show immediately after saying this.

He then bargained "Can I finish this?" with producers of the show.

The broadcast resumed with a new hostess in his place who continued with another report.

A video clip from the show went viral on China's Twitter-like microblog service Sina Weibo within two hours on Wednesday, with many opinion leaders reposting it.

A supervisor for the channel responded in a statement that it was an "on-air accident" and would be handled according to regulations.

His job was not affected, Cui wrote on his personal verified Weibo on Wednesday night.

"I lost control of my emotions," he wrote. "Thank you for your tolerance."

In a Weibo entry on Thursday morning, Cui said he was preparing for another live show.

The entry attracted nearly 2,000 comments, mostly encouragement.

"Not many people can speak out although you were forced to shut up. Keep it up," posted Weibo user Gaofeicui.

Others warned Cui had ignored his duty.

"Journalism professionals should refrain from venting too much personal emotions before finding the truth," Zhang Zhi'an, a professor at the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, told the Global Times.

FT Chinese columnist Xu Danei suggested the channel was perhaps trying to raise its profile while blogger Wen Xiantang wrote that a TV anchor should not draw sweeping conclusions on limited evidence.