Happy birthday, David Muir! The veteran ABC News anchor, who has been with the network since 2013 and has hosted World News Tonight with David Muir since September 2014, celebrates his 52nd birthday today on November 6, Saturday. While the news anchor usually keeps low-key on special days, save for tributes from colleagues and friends like Deborah Roberts and Kelly Ripa, he did get an extra dose of good news in the days leading up to his big day, courtesy of good ol' ABC ratings.
Based on the latest ratings from ABC News and Disney, the primetime news show hit "season highs in adults 25-54 and adults 18-49," while also showing growth "year to year in total viewers and adults 18-49," pulling in a grand total of 7.755 million, outperforming its closest competitor, NBC's Nightly News, by 1.6 million viewers.
It also achieved a milestone, ranking No. 1 in total viewers for the 10th straight year, per the latest Big Data+Panel ratings, once again pulling ahead of its closest competitors, NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News. In other stats, it also soared past its previous week's adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 ratios by 3-6% on each metric.
Last month, the journalist was awarded with the 2025 Lew Klein Excellence in Media Award from Temple University in Philadelphia. David is an alum himself of Ithaca College, having grown up in Syracuse, New York and getting his feet wet with internships as a teenager at local news stations. He passed on some of the insight he'd gained from his decades in the field with his speech to the crowd on October 23.
"I think it's so important that we all in this room remember to look behind us and make sure the door is open for the next person to come through," he began, adding: "There is no time more important to be a journalist in our country than right now. Let the viewers at home listen to the facts, hear the truth and decide for themselves, and in that way you will be a success before you even know it."
"The true highlight of my day here was going to the Klein school and meeting the young journalists who are going to take up this extraordinary discipline," he continued, elaborating on his day spent working with the students of the Klein College of Media and Communication. During a recent conversation with People, he looked back on his own early days, specifically when he first started with ABC News and found a mentor in his predecessor, Diane Sawyer.
"It's funny because [Diane] would tell you, and has told me, 'I'm not your mentor. I'm your friend. I'm your colleague'," he shared with the publication. "'We're both reporters.' And I still remember the first morning I reported to that studio in Times Square, sitting next to Diane Sawyer. And I remember looking at her and I couldn't believe she was sitting in the chair next to me."
As for his career forward? David is committed to continuing his work as a journalist and evolving in the role, so don't expect him to bow out from World News Tonight anytime soon. "I think it's really important to continue to try being better. The moment you stop learning, the moment you're no longer curious, the moment you don't believe you can be better than you were a night ago or a week ago, is probably a time to sort of check yourself."