What exactly did David Muir say during the Jan. 14 World News Tonight broadcast, and where can the full clip be viewed?
Executive summary
David Muir opened ABC’s World News Tonight on Jan. 14, 2026 with a breaking-news lead about unrest in Iran, saying, “Good evening, we begin tonight here with breaking news coming out of Iran,” and reporting that Iran was restricting much of its airspace and that U.S. troops at the largest U.S. base in the Middle East had been warned to be ready to evacuate in Qatar [1]. The full Jan. 14 episode and multiple short clips from that broadcast are available from ABC’s official World News Tonight pages and archived copies of the broadcast [2] [3] [1].
1. What David Muir said at the top of the Jan. 14 broadcast
At the top of the Jan. 14 World News Tonight, David Muir began by saying, “Good evening, we begin tonight here with breaking news coming out of Iran,” then reported that “we have learned a short time ago, Iran restricting much of its airspace” and that “U.S. troops at the largest U.S. base in the Middle East had been warned to be ready to evacuate in Qatar,” handing the report to ABC foreign correspondents to expand on developments [1] [4]. This opening — described in TV caption archives and echoed in secondary reporting — frames the night’s lead as fast-developing international breaking news [1] [4].
2. How that wording appears in available records
The precise lines above are captured in TV-capture archives of the KGO broadcast for the Jan. 14 edition, which include the opening voiceover and early correspondent handoffs; those archived captions reproduce Muir’s words about restricted Iranian airspace and U.S. forces on alert [1]. ABC’s own episode guides and video listings for Jan. 14 list the show and make the program available as a full episode and as shorter video segments, indicating ABC has posted both full-episode and clip formats for that date [2] [3].
3. Where to view the full Jan. 14 clip or episode
The full Jan. 14 World News Tonight episode can be viewed via ABC’s official World News Tonight episode pages and video sections, which host full episodes and shorter clips from Jan. 14, 2026 [2] [3]. In addition, a complete broadcast file for the Jan. 14 telecast is archived on the Internet Archive (KGO_20260115_013000_ABC_World_News_Tonight_With_David_Muir), which preserves the episode’s audio and captions and reproduces the opening lines cited above [1]. ABC’s live and video pages also aggregate recent segments and can be used to find on-demand clips [5].
4. Secondary reporting and corroboration
Media outlets that covered the telecast’s notable breaking-news opening — including a national tabloid summary — quoted the same opening lines and described the report as announcing U.S. forces being put on alert at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar amid Iranian unrest, corroborating the gist of Muir’s on-air framing [4]. The ABC podcast feed and episode synopses for that period further list the Jan. 14 broadcast’s coverage lineup, reinforcing that the show opened with international breaking-news material that night [6].
5. Limits of available reporting and how to verify the exact phrasing
Publicly available sources for Jan. 14 include ABC’s episode guide and video clips, the ABC video index that hosts multiple segment lengths for that date, and a station-level archive capture that reproduces the opening script [2] [3] [1]. If a verbatim transcript of every sentence beyond the opening is required, the full archived broadcast on Internet Archive and ABC’s full-episode video are the primary verifiable sources to consult; available summaries capture the key opening lines but do not substitute for watching the full segment if exact punctuation or additional off-air commentary is needed [1] [3].