David Muir’s replacement anchors for him on World News Tonight for first time in 6 months
David Muir ditched the Thursday, July 16, episode of his nightly news program, World News Tonight, leaving an ABC correspondent to fill in for him.
World News Tonight viewers who tuned in saw ABC journalist Mary Bruce, 41, in the anchor chair instead of David Muir, 52. Mary explained that she was “in for David” on Thursday before moving on to “breaking news.” It’s unclear where David is, or why he was absent from the ABC show. The last time Mary covered for David on World News Tonight was in January.
When Mary hosted for David on January 1, she delivered some tragic news stories, including one about a “deadly” New Year’s Eve celebration that happened “overseas.”
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At the time, she introduced the segment, stating, “Overseas now to a New Year’s Eve celebration turning deadly as flames ripped through a bar in a Swiss ski resort town.”
Mary outlined that on the night of New Year’s Day, there was “a memorial honoring the victims,” which included “40 people killed and dozens more injured.”
After Mary reported the news on-air, World News Tonight and ABC News’ respective Instagram accounts shared a joint post about the Switzerland bar fire she covered.
The Instagram post showed a photo of what appeared to be authorities on the scene after the New Year’s disaster at the Swiss bar. Penned over the image was the headline, “‘Several’ dozen people presumed dead and about 100 injured in fire at a bar in Switzerland on New Year’s Day, police say.”
Several commented their devastation over the incident under her post, as one shared, “Every beginning of the year something happens,” while one admitted, “Absolutely atrocious. Horrific.”
Someone else added, “Prayers up to everyone involved.” Each day at 3:30 PM PST/6:30 PM EST, ABC fans can normally look forward to seeing David deliver the latest news for a nightly episode of World News Tonight, except for when he’s either taking a break or on off-air assignments.
David might share special announcements on social media when he’s away, which he did in May of this year. When he was missing from his anchor desk on assignment, leaving Whit Johnson, 44, to fill in for him, he shared a special message on Instagram.
During that time, David shared a screenshot of a Variety article with the headline, “News Emmys: ABC, Nat Geo Top 2026 Wins, Thanks to ‘World News Tonight’ and ‘Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller’,” in a joint Instagram post with the official World News Tonight account.
Showing that the news headline revealed that David’s nightly news program won in multiple categories at the 2026 News Emmy Awards. David shared his gratitude for his milestone in his post’s caption.
“On a shoot with no cell service, and came out to learn our team was on stage accepting the Emmy for best newscast. I love our team. And our viewers. Back to no cell service now. It’s kind of nice,” David wrote.
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