David Muir mysteriously absent from World News Tonight after making huge milestone

David Muir was mysteriously absent from the anchor chair on ABC’s World News Tonight on August 21 after the show reached a massive milestone amid the turbulent late-night drama

David Muir was absent from World News Tonight after reaching a huge milestone(Image: ABC)

News anchor David Muir was mysteriously absent from ABC’s World News Tonight on August 21 after the show reached a massive milestone this week.

The network’s Senior Political Correspondent, Rachel Scott, greeted viewers on Thursday night, diving into the episode’s segments right away before cameras returned to her smiling face. She informed viewers she was filling in for Muir, but did not divulge the reason for his absence. The Mirror US has reached out to Muir and ABC News for comment.

Meanwhile, one fan did not appreciate Scott’s running of the show. The social media user wrote on X, formerly Twitter, of the World News Tonight episode, “Rachel Scott substituting anchoring for @ABC David Muir is awful. Her expression is angry and she voices over the open like she was running the 50 yard dash or catching a train.”

Muir’s absence comes after ABC announced in a press release on August 19 that World News Tonight With David Muir is the No. 1 program across all television for 14 weeks straight. The news broadcast’s total viewers in adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 have also grown week over week.

Rachel Scott filled in for David Muir on World News Tonight

World News Tonight is also the No. 1 newscast in total viewers for the ninth year straight, ahead of NBC by the largest margin in 30 years and CBS in five years. It is the No. 1 newscast in adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 for the sixth season in a row, ahead of NBC and CBS by double digits.

World News Tonight with David Muir was the No. 1 program in total viewers with 7.006 million on all of broadcast and cable during the week of Aug. 11, 2025, based on Live+Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile, other shows are fearing what Stephen Colbert’s firing from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert could mean for late-night TV. The entertainment industry will have a better sense of what’s happening to late-night next year when Disney decides the fate of Jimmy Kimmel’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.

While NBC recently extended the contracts of its two late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, into 2028, Kimmel’s contract is set to end in 2026.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel could be safe from the axing Stephen Colbert got from CBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live has aired on ABC since 2003. It has been a valuable marketing tool for virtually all of Disney’s content. While having one-on-one interviews with stars, Kimmel also frequently hosts special joint interviews, often for Disney’s major franchises like Marvel and Star Wars.

Kimmel also frequently hosts the Oscars, which airs on Disney’s ABC, and is currently the host of ABC’s celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Everything that Kimmel does for Disney’s ventures may keep him safe from getting the ax. They make him more of an asset to Disney and their long-term future than Colbert was for Paramount or CBS.