Two Fox News anchors have been criticised for their reactions to Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover.

Reacting to the cover, on which former Olympian Bruce Jenner debuted her new female identity, Fox Business host Neil Cavuto asked, “What the hell is going on?”.

• Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce) covers Vanity Fair

The studio then crossed to his co-host Dagen McDowell, who accused Jenner of attempting to one-up her stepdaughter Kim Kardashian’s recent pregnancy announcement.

“Let’s give him credit,” McDowell implored, using the incorrect male pronoun to address Jenner.

“He is the only person on planet earth who knows how to one-up his most famous stepdaughter. She announces last night she was pregnant with a child well, you know what? I can do you one better than that.”

McDowell then went on the question Jenner’s outfit and the spelling of her name before crossing back to Cavuto, who introduced guest Charles Payne as “Charlene Payne”.

“What do you make of all that?” Cavuto asked Payne, who responded: “It’s the era that we’re living in, right?”

“It is. Rome, final days,” Cavuto retorted.

The hosts have been accused of being “disrespectful” in their reporting of the cover, which went viral the minute it hit the web on Tuesday.

@FoxNews the way that you treated the @Caitlyn_Jenner story was disrespectful! But then again, I expect nothing less from @FoxNews

— Jen S. (@seifert619) June 2, 2015

You can watch the uncomfortable coverage below.