Muir's 'ABC World News Tonight' sees 12% drop in viewers
ABC's David Muir dismisses debate 'noise,' says he and Linsey Davis addressed 'issues of our time'
ABC's David Muir told "Live with Kelly and Mark" about his debate prep and why he dismissed the post-debate "noise" about the candidates and moderators.
ABC’s "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir may have driven away some viewers after the Disney-owned network irked conservatives during last week’s presidential debate.
Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump five times without ever correcting Vice President Kamala Harris, prompting a plethora of conservatives to suggest the debate wasn’t fair. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America even called for a correction after Davis made an abortion claim made during the debate during one of the fact-checks on Trump that the group said was "100% inaccurate."
Muir’s "World News Tonight" averaged 6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the three episodes following the debate, after averaging 7.6 million in 2024 leading up to the debate.
The 12% drop in viewers for "World News Tonight" is more significant than slight declines "CBS Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" saw when comparing the three episodes following ABC’s debate to the year-to-date totals, although Muir’s newscast remained the No. 1 broadcast evening newscast.
ABC'S DAVID MUIR DISMISSES POST-DEBATE ‘NOISE’ ABOUT MODERATORS
US broadcaster David Muir (L) and US broadcaster Linsey Davis (R) pose for pictures with ABC News crew members at the end of a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. ((Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images))
While it’s unclear if Trump supporters have tuned out ABC’s newscast on the heels of the debate, the former president has blasted it as "one-sided." Trump told Fox News that he believed Harris should have been fact-checked on a variety of claims.
"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," Trump said last week.
"It was so ... one-sided," he continued. "It was one against three."
Davis admitted in a post-debate interview that her fact-checking of Trump was influenced by the CNN debate that went disastrously for President Biden in June.
"People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators," Davis told the Los Angeles Times last week.
ABC Presidential Debate co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. (ABC News)
On Sunday, ABC News' Martha Raddatz even noted on Sunday that Harris was wrong when she said there is "not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world."
"Our fact-checkers found that to be false," Raddatz said.
"There are currently 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria, 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq. All have been under regular threat from drones and missiles for months. We also have action in the Red Sea," Raddatz continued. "Also, every single day, the Navy SEALs, Delta Forces special operators can be part of any sort of deadly raid."
Muir and Davis failed to correct Harris in front of the debate’s massive audience of nearly 70 million people.
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
Brian Flood is a media editor/reporter for FOX News Digital. Story tips can be sent to
