In bad news for ABC News, particularly the September 10 presidential debate co-moderator and ABC News anchor David Muir, Muir’s show “World News Tonight” has seen a notable and at least somewhat concerning, for him and ABC News, drop in show viewers. That comes despite Muir being a longtime ABC News anchor.
As background, during the debate, Muir went after former President Donald Trump with a vengeance, as did fellow debate co-moderator Linsey Davis, with many on the right and even some on the left arguing that their continual fact-checking of Trump and not fact-checking of Harris showing bias that needs to be investigated.
In any case, the three days after the debate were quite rough for Muir, who lost nearly a million viewers on his show. In fact, according to a report in the New York Post, the show averaged just 6.7 million viewers for the broadcasts on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the three days that followed the debate.
That is a significant decline of about 12% for “World News Tonight,” which has seen an average of 7.6 million viewers over the course of 2024. Further, it was a significantly sharper decline than those experienced by other programs, such as “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News,” over the same period.
The significantly sharper decline in viewership for Muir’s program could show that some viewers tuned out because of annoyance with the perceived debate bias. Trump, after the debate, hammered Muir specifically, saying, “Every one of them should have been questioned by David Muir, who I’ve lost a lot of respect for. Everyone’s lost respect for him.” He added, “It was so … one-sided.”
Muir has since tried to defend his conduct, saying that he and Davis did what Americans cared about. He said, speaking on “Live with Kelly and Mark,” “We spent a lot of time and I believe it was our duty to ask the issues that Americans care about.” He added, “You have to be ready for whatever might come your way, even the most unexpected of moments. As you all know, you know what I’m talking about.”
Continuing, Muir said that concerns over the moderators was “noise,” saying, “I will say this, all of the noise that you hear afterward about which candidate won the debate, did the moderators win or lose, that’s just noise. You all know that. The most important thing to remember is that you all have the power. Everybody at home has the power.”
One commenter on X (formerly Twitter), commenting on Muir’s appearance, said, “Kelly and Mark! I usually watch Keely and Mark because they don’t talk about politics on their show BUT Monday David Muir was on! He started preaching about toning down political rhetoric! I turned him off and did not watch the rest of the show! Fake Sanctimonious David Muir!!”
Trump has declined Kamala’s calls for a second presidential debate between them, saying, in a post on Truth Social, “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.’ Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate.”
