ABC Moderator David Muir Sees Ratings Crater After ‘One-Sided’ Debate

ABC News anchor David Muir has seen a significant drop in ratings for his nightly news broadcast, “World News Tonight,” since moderating last week’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

During that debate, which is likely to be the only matchup between the 2024 nominees, Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis were roundly criticized for throwing in with Harris. While they allowed her to push debunked talking points and verifiably false information, they repeatedly fact-checked Trump — even though in a few cases, their “fact-checks” were not accurate.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week — the three days immediately following the debate — Muir’s “World News Tonight” averaged 6.7 million viewers, according to a report from the New York Post. That’s a 12% drop in viewership from the 7.6 million viewers Muir averaged prior to the debate this year.

ABC’s David Muir sees newscast ratings tank after his controversial debate moderating https://t.co/8jJbkzkM5N pic.twitter.com/YUcsnynvhf

— New York Post (@nypost) September 17, 2024

The report noted that both the “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News” also saw a slight drop in ratings over those same three nights, but that the drop for ABC was more pronounced. Muir did retain his spot at the top of the ratings despite the drop-off.

In the week since the debate, critics have called out ABC over the obvious bias displayed by both moderators during the broadcast, noting that in addition to Muir and Davis only fact-checking Trump, they also only pressed him with follow-up questions.

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Trump has also complained on several occasions about how unfair the set-up was, arguing that throughout most of the event, it had been “one against three.”

“It was so one-sided,” he said.

The former president said that Harris should have also been fact-checked if the moderators were going to be fair and honest about it. “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.”