An Australian TV host who flew from Sydney to London for an exclusive interview with Adele reportedly bungled the assignment by not listening to her new album beforehand.

Channel 7’s Matt Doran arrived in London on 4 November for the interview, as part of a £500,000 deal between Sony and his network to screen Adele’s recent One Night Only special, Oprah Winfrey interview, and other clips.

According to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, Mr Doran was given 20 to 30 minutes with Adele, but about halfway through the interview the singer began to notice that the Weekend Sunrise host was struggling to express an opinion of his own about her new album.

When Adele asked him directly what he thought of “30”, he admitted he had not listened to it, they reported.

Sony later refused to allow the footage of the interview to be used, despite it being filmed by Channel 7’s own crew, according to the newspaper.

The network had to edit together a montage of Aussie artists singing covers of Adele’s tracks as filler, while Mr Doran was suspended for two weeks, it said.

However, Mr Doran told The Australian that he had not been suspended.

He also said he had missed an email with a preview copy of the songs.

“It was an oversight but not a deliberate snub… This is the most important email I have ever missed,” he said.

The flight from Sydney to London takes approximately 23 hours – leading many online to point out that the host would have had time to listen to a one-hour album.