SUNRISE host Samantha Armytage has been left awkwardly trying to explain herself after appearing to offend David Duchovny with a question about his longevity.

The X-Files star was a guest on Seven's breakfast show this morning, where he was asked "how much longer" he'd be able to do the show for.

The sci-fi drama, starring Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, first aired from 1993-2002, before making a comeback in 2016.

Replying to Armytage's question, the actor simply stared her down and said: "I don't know."

"So you'd just keep going?" she asked.

"You say that like it's a bad thing - 'You just keep going?'" Duchovny mimicked back, leaving the TV host scrambling to smooth it over.

"No, I don't mean it like it's ... No, I think it's great!" Armytage insisted, before adding: "No, but 25 years ..."

Duchovny cut her off, telling her: "You're making it worse and worse. 'Twenty-five years' - when are you going to stop?"

"But how long do you want to do it for?" Armytage continued.

"I don't know, if I can find a challenge in it, and people want to watch it ... I can't sit here and answer that right now."

Yikes.

Duchovny also refused to reveal whether he believed in aliens - as per the theme of the hit show - telling the hosts that he'd already answered it too many times over the years.

"I'm not going to answer that right now," he said.

"I've probably answered that a million times so - and I've given 500,000 yes's and 500,000 no's."