Ratings for ABC’s “World News Tonight” fell by over 10% since the Sept. 10 debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News hosts David Muir and Linsey Davis.
The Disney-owned network’s broadcast news program hosted by Muir that airs at 6:30 p.m. EDT drew an average of 7.6 million viewers before the September 10 debate, but only drew an average of 6.7 million viewers in the three days after the debate, according to Fox News. Muir and Davis, who hosts the program on weekends, were criticized for making so-called “fact checks” on Trump more often than Harris during the event, even though Harris made false statements about Trump’s position on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other issues.
Davis said their decision to be more proactive in fact-checking Trump stemmed from the June 27 debate hosted by CNN between the former president and President Joe Biden.
“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 said during a Sept. 11 interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Trump later said he “lost a bit of respect” for Muir after the debate.
“It was so … one-sided,” he told Fox News. “It was one against three.”
Conservatives agreed with the former president, saying the debate was rigged against Trump, with the former president having to not only contend with Harris, but also Muir and Davis. At one point during the debate, Davis asked Harris about changes in positions on policy issues, but did not press the vice president when Harris discussed “values” instead of responding to the question.
ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz noted Sunday that Harris had misstated facts about American troops being in harm’s way during the debate, something Muir and Davis didn’t do during the debate, Fox News reported.
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