ABC’s David Muir Sees Rating Plunge Amid Debate Moderation Backlash

Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

ABC’s “World News Tonight” has been experiencing a massive decline in ratings following widespread condemnation of host David Muir’s performance as a moderator during the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

According to the New York Post, “World News Tonight” averaged about 7.6 million viewers per night throughout most of 2024, prior to the debate on September 10th.

In the first three episodes after the debate, the show averaged about 6.7 million viewers, amounting to a roughly 12% drop.

Following the debate, President Trump has criticized Muir at campaign rallies, as he and co-moderator Linsey Davis refused to fact-check anything that Harris said but repeatedly pushed back on statements from President Trump.

“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,” said the former president last week.

“It was so one-sided. It was one against three.”

Davis attempted to justify her performance, where she incorrectly told President Trump that no states in the country allow for post-birth abortions.

She cited the lack of fact-checking in the CNN debate on June 27th between President Trump and Joe Biden, which went so horribly for Biden that he was ultimately forced to withdraw from the race on July 21st.

“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 claimed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Only after the debate did ABC fact-check anything said by Harris, when Martha Raddatz confirmed that the vice president had lied when she declared that 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 confirmed.