David Muir hosted ABC World News Tonight as usual on Tuesday, January 27, but the host looked visibly frustrated as viewers claimed somebody was ‘messing’ with him

David Muir viewers were left feeling for the newscaster as he suffered a disastrous start to his broadcast after experiencing back-to-back technical difficulties on Tuesday evening.

During the January 27 broadcast of ABC World News Tonight, Muir was forced to recover from not one, but two different technical issues that occurred back-to-back. Opening the broadcast, the 52-year-old anchor delivered breaking news of the latest update in the investigation of Alex Pretti’s death after the ICU nurse was fatally shot by two federal agents.

But as Muir went to turn over the live coverage to an ABC correspondent based in Minneapolis covering the heartbreaking shooting, he was met with silence on the other end. After the awkward lengthy pause, Muir said, “Obviously we’re having some issues here. We’ll get to that report from Minneapolis in just a moment, but of course we’re also tracking this potential nor’easter that could come right up the coast.”

He continued, “This comes as tens of millions deal with this life-threatening cold tonight into tomorrow. Here’s Victor Quendo on that tonight.”

After a lengthly pause once again, Muir said, “We await Victor’s piece too and Ginger Zee is standing by with us and she’s live with the forecast tonight. Ginger, this is obviously what happens with live television from time to time, but you’ll take us right through this forecast.”

Luckily for Muir, her forecast went swimmingly, but many viewers took notice of the numerous issues and aired out their grievances with the ABC Network on social media. On X (formerly Twitter) one person posted, “Poor David Muir – @ABCWorldNews can’t get their s–t together.”

Another viewer asked, “What did all your control room people call out sick. This is the most bungled screwed up news of watched in the last 20 years,” while a third added, “whats happening on david muir rn…”

A fourth fan posted, “ABC World News Tonight and David Muir just had a disaster of a start to the show – as not one, but two packages don’t air. Look at his face, he’s not pleased.”

And another echoed, “Somebody is messing with your clips!!”

Someone else chimed in, “WAIT: I was told this kind of technical snafu was only the kind of thing that happens to supposed amateurs like Bari Weiss and Tony Dokoupil at the ‘CBS Evening News,’ NOT the top-rated ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ with David Muir!”