A “mortified” Australian TV reporter has tried to explain how he bungled an exclusive interview with the singer Adele about her new album.

The host of Channel Seven’s Weekend Sunrise, Matt Doran, and a crew flew to London for the chat, which was reportedly part of a A$1m package including broadcast rights to Adele’s One Night Only television special. It would have been Adele’s only Australian interview.

After Doran conceded during the interview that he had only heard one track from her latest work, 30, the interview was canned. Sony is refusing to release the footage.

Doran said he simply missed the email that contained a preview of the album.

In the fiercely competitive world of Australian breakfast television, the interview would have been a major coup for Channel Seven, which is locked in an eternal battle with Channel Nine’s Today in the ratings.

Doran has now admitted he missed an e-card with a preview copy of her latest work.

The oversight had many asking how he could have made such a mistake.

The entertainment reporter Peter Ford tweeted it was “pretty shoddy” but also “totally out of character” for Doran.

The writer Tarla Lambert described it as “privilege personified”. “There are thousands upon thousands of highly qualified, talented reporters waiting in the wings who would kill for Matt Doran’s position,” she wrote in Women’s Agenda.

“The fact that he thought it was reasonable to rock up to an interview with one of the world’s most influential women, and fail to ask her about her work, is reason enough to give one of these other young hopefuls a chance.”

Doran told the Australian he was “totally unaware” he was in possession of her album, which was only publicly released on Friday, a couple of weeks after Doran’s London trip.

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

The Daily Telegraph reported that, after the exclusive interview, Adele asked him what he thought of her much-anticipated fourth studio album.

“I haven’t listened to it,” Doran reportedly responded. Sony had veto rights on the interview as well as footage of Oprah Winfrey’s One Night Only special with Adele.

Doran said he had “somehow” missed the email on landing in London but denies initial reports that Adele walked out on the interview.

“Adele didn’t storm out,” he said. “In fact, it was the polar opposite. What was meant to be 20 minutes was extended to 29 minutes.

“The majority of the chat was about the album. I told her: ‘I’ve only had the privilege of hearing Easy on Me, but not the other tracks.’ ”

Doran also says he wasn’t formally suspended from Sunrise, after reports suggested he’d been spoken to and suspended for two weeks.

When Doran posted to Instagram on 4 November that his imminent interview with Adele was “going to be pretty special”, he didn’t realise how much of a splash it would make.

Meanwhile, the ABC political reporter Matt Doran was copping some heat after being mistaken for the Sunrise star with the same name.

“Go easy on me … ,” he tweeted.