Why This Matters: As ABC marks 70 years of evening newscasts, World News Tonight anchor David Muir is helping fuel the show's upwards rating trajectory.
As ABC's evening newscast approaches its 70th anniversary, it has considerable momentum. With David Muir anchoring World News Tonight, the 6:30 p.m. program is averaging 8.65 million total viewers this year, up 5% from the same point last year. In the 25-54 demo, World News Tonight is up 4%.
Muir officially slid into the World News Tonight chair in September of 2014, succeeding Diane Sawyer as anchor and managing editor. He's made his mark in evening news, frequently flying out of New York on weekends to check out what he deems to be an underreported story in Jordan, Syria, Somaliland or some other far-off point.
I'm not just the guy who sits there at the desk, he said.
World News Tonight colleagues describe Muir as a highly engaged anchor with a hand in all aspects of the newscast. They also mention an extraordinary ability to connect with viewers. He connects with the audience like no other anchor, Almin Karamehmedovic, executive producer of the newscast, said. David has a unique capability to connect with people across the board.
Muir grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and mentions his love for TV news being such that, as a boy, he would bid goodbye to his friends as they played outside to sneak in and watch the evening news. When he was 12, Muir wrote a letter to his favorite anchor, WTVH Syracuse's Ron Curtis ( the Walter Cronkite of my town, Muir said), then landed an internship at WTVH when he was 13 or 14. Returning to the station each year when school ended, Muir would be led to a doorway covered in pencil marks, where station colleagues would measure how much he'd grown.
I was carrying the tripod and ripping the scripts when we had like 5-ply paper for the anchors, and fetching their Cokes out of the Coke machine, Muir said.
ABC News president James Goldston said Muir's passion for TV news has not subsided since his childhood. Pretty much every waking moment of David's life is dedicated to telling stories stories of the world, Goldston said. His passion and enthusiasm and dedication, every single second, is really incredible to witness.
World News Tonight is growing at a time when few broadcast programs can claim that. NBC Nightly News, leader in the demo races, is flat in total viewers year to date, and minus 3% in viewers 25-54. CBS Evening News is off 5% in total viewers and down 9% in viewers 25-54.
The ABC 6:30 show's 70th anniversary it debuted as News and Views arrives Aug. 11. (The CBS and NBC evening newscasts turned 70 earlier this year.)
Muir's ratings-grabbing interviews include President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. He spoke with B&C about the newscast's history, its resurgence and what's next. An edited transcript follows.
Which news anchor do you consider a major influence?
Peter Jennings
I was incredibly lucky to have arrived at ABC when Peter Jennings was still the anchor of World News Tonight. Charlie [Gibson] and Diane [Sawyer] were the anchors of Good Morning America and I had a chance to report for Peter on his broadcast. I still remember the first time he called me out in the field. With Charlie, I remember the night covering the war with Hezbollah in Israel, and we were getting ready to go on. Right before air, the Avid editing system crashed, and my story crashed with it. So the executive producer gets into my ear in sort of a panic. They opened up Charlie's microphone and he said, We're just going to have a conversation.' And I said, I'm ready, let's do it.' The open played and it was just Charlie and me for a significant amount of time, right off the top of the broadcast.
I remember when I was hired here, I was a week into the job, and it was the blackout of the Northeast. They'd hired me to be the overnight anchor and a correspondent. I was anchoring when the blackout happened. We had very little power in the building we were operating on generators and there was no teleprompter and no monitors so I couldn't see what was actually airing.
I was on the air for hours. Times Square was dark, so they brought the Good Morning America team uptown. And I remember, when I signed off after hours of this coverage and said, For many of you, Good Morning America is next,' people in the newsroom stood up and started clapping. I turned around and it was the Good Morning America team and I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was Charlie and Diane and the team. After that, I felt as though I was off and running here.
What about TV news appealed to you as a child? Were you a curious kid, a storyteller?
I was a curious child and I was also a storyteller. My mom would come home from work and say, just give me five minutes,' because I'd be waiting at the front door every day with my list of stories.
It was also the travel. With local news, they're not traveling the world; they did some international reporting but certainly not at the level you see at the networks. But I was drawn to that. I thought this could be a way to go out there and see the world.
I vividly remember getting in those news cruisers on James Street in Syracuse and going out to the severe storms in Oswego County or the Syracuse Common Council meetings. I would get in the back of that cruiser whenever they would let me go. I think back to being the kid in the back of that car and I'm grateful to those photographers and reporters for allowing me to come along for the ride. That's why we have people here almost every night, watching the news generally young people who reach out to me. Because I remember they did that for me and it made all the difference.
You spend many weeken
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Why This Matters: As ABC marks 70 years of evening newscasts, World News Tonight anchor David Muir is helping fuel the show's upwards rating trajectory.
