ABC’s David Muir suffered an ugly start to his broadcast on Tuesday due to a technical hitch that struck barely two minutes in.
The issue occurred just as Muir, 52, began to segue into the day’s news and saw the broadcast filled with dead air as the segments failed to broadcast.
The glitch sent staffers in the control room frantically scrambling for a fix, a source familiar with the situation told the Daily Mail.
The source further specified that the slip-up was caused by ‘a computer issue’.
The World News Tonight host, meanwhile, was right in the middle of handing the broadcast over to reporter Matt Rivers when it happened.
Rather than Rivers, viewers were met with several seconds of silence and a still of the Alexander brothers – a trio of real-estate brokers currently on trial for alleged sex trafficking.
Accompanying the silence was an unrelated chyron about Minneapolis, which persisted for a full 14 seconds before ABC Senior Investigative Reporter Aaron Katersky eventually showed up on-screen.
The reporter, however, stayed silent. He stood staring at the camera for several seconds before a graphic related to the Alexander brothers popped up on-screen.
ABC’s David Muir suffered a rocky start to his World News Tonight broadcast on Tuesday due to a technical issue
ABC Senior Investigative Reporter Aaron Katersky was left staring at the camera because of the snafu, which left viewers looking at a series of unexplained stills
The image flashed quickly before viewers were once again met with Muir, who offered them a brief explanation.
‘Obviously we’re having some issues here. We’ll get to that report from Minneapolis in just a moment,’ he said, before attempting to pivot to another planned segment about a potential nor’easter set to hit the East Coast.
‘This comes as tens of millions deal with this life-threatening cold tonight into tomorrow,’ Muir said. ‘Here’s Victor Oquendo on that tonight.’
However, the technical issue persisted and the correspondent never appeared.
Muir waited for several seconds while shuffling through papers during the subsequent dead air.
‘We await Victor’s piece, too,’ the host said as it became clear the report was not coming.
Running out of options, Muir went to meteorologist Ginger Zee for her forecast.
Luckily, Zee’s feed was working and a weather report followed.
‘Obviously this is what happens with live television from time to time,’ Muir admitted during the transfer while managing to stay composed.
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Rather than River’s report from Minneapolis, an image of two of the three Alexander brothers – a trio of former real estate brokers on trial for alleged sex trafficking – populated the screen
Sources familiar with situation said staffers in the World News Tonight control room frantically rushed to get the computer issue fixed
The rest of the broadcast went on without issue. Sources described the mad rush to get the issue fixed as a ‘massive meltdown’ to Status.
An industry executive told the Mail that such issues are unavoidable.
‘Everyone gets hit with technical gremlins. David Stayed calm and carried on with the show. It’s what you do.’
World News Tonight meanwhile remains well ahead of its rivals in ratings, with an average of nine million total viewers last week compared to next-best NBC Nightly News’ 6.856 million.
CBS Evening News. which now has a new anchor in former CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil, remains well behind with 4.8million.
Dokoupil, who was elevated by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss earlier this month, suffered a series of similar issues during his first broadcast on January 5.
The host segued to a segment he told viewers was set to surround Minnesota Governor Tim Walz before an unrelated photograph of Arizona Senator Mark Kelly flashed on-screen.
Dokoupil was then met with a wall of silence and more unexplained Kelly B-roll, leading him to outright ask the control room for direction.
Muir managed to stay composed during the disarray, which an executive said comes with the territory. Muir took over the show from Diane Sawyer in 2014
‘Are we going to Kelly here or are we going to go to Jonah Kaplan?’ Dokoupil asked before going with Kelly once seeing the images appearing on-screen.
When it came time to address Walz, Dokoupil also flubbed the nickname for the governor’s home state, labeling it ‘the Great Lake State’ instead of the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to ABC News for comment.
