NEW YORK (AP) – Among the stories David Muir will introduce during his first week as ABC’s “World News” anchor is one he reported about a generation of Syrian refugees missing out on an education.
Besides detailing a hidden aspect of the civil war, the story serves a dual purpose: to signal viewers – and his bosses – that Muir wants to get out of the office for work as much as he can.
“A huge part of this for me was a promise that I was not going to be tethered to the anchor desk,” said Muir, who officially replaces Diane Sawyer on Monday night.
Muir, 40, joins NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams and Scott Pelley of the “CBS Evening News” at one of the three jobs generally considered the pinnacle of American broadcast news. Muir is also a generation younger than the 55-year-old Williams and 57-year-old Pelley.
Muir is already known well to “World News” viewers as Sawyer’s chief sub, and, since the start of the year, he has anchored half as many weeknights (46) as Sawyer (92), according to news consultant Andrew Tyndall. Muir has groomed himself for the job since he was a child.