Video taking off 49x its usual first day

A hijack-scare text and a Star Trek farewell share David Muir's newscast

The October 26 World News Tonight runs from a United flight turning back and record early voting to George Takei's tribute to Walter Koenig.

Channel:

ABC News Story of October 28, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 910,497 views a day, 49 times a normal first day on this channel (18,416).

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast - Oct. 26, 2026

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

2:49Pierre Thomas reports that unsealed documents show the Justice Department's third attempt to indict former FBI director James Comey.
3:40Jay O'Brien reports record early voting in 47 states, with Trump in Mississippi and Obama in Michigan.
6:48King tides flood parts of California and the East Coast; Ginger Zee warns of rip currents and gusts up to 40 mph.
9:25A United flight lands safely after a flight attendant spots a passenger texting a hijacking threat.
12:35Matt Rivers explains why Israel's election is a fight for political survival for Benjamin Netanyahu.
18:24A tribute to Walter Koenig, Star Trek's Chekov, with George Takei remembering him as writer, teacher and friend.

A passenger types out a threat on his phone, a flight attendant sees it, and a United flight from Las Vegas to Newark turns around. Gio Benitez tells that story about halfway through the October 26 edition of World News Tonight, and the cockpit audio carries it. "The flight attendant saw him texting that he was going to hijack the aircraft," the pilot says. Moments later comes a quieter instruction: "No restraint. Passenger is compliant cause he's unaware." The plane landed safely.

The full broadcast has drawn about 900,000 views in its first day, far beyond what the channel's regular-length videos usually manage. In roughly twenty minutes, David Muir moves from Pierre Thomas on the Justice Department's third attempt to charge former FBI director James Comey to Jay O'Brien on record early voting in 47 states, with the midterms eight days away and Donald Trump and Barack Obama campaigning in Mississippi and Michigan. Trevor Ault and Ginger Zee follow king tides pushing seawater onto both coasts, and Matt Rivers reports on Benjamin Netanyahu's fight to survive Israel's election.

The comments came in about twice as fast as on a usual first day. Many viewers simply greet Muir by name. Others fasten on a brief item near the end about a three-year-old in Florida whose family says police escorted him from a youth soccer game after he was benched for being too good. The league's director tells a different story. ABC's standalone Short of that report took off too, coming close to the full broadcast's first-day audience. Comments about gas prices turn up as well.

The last word goes to Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov on the original Star Trek and returned to the role in all six original-cast films and in Star Trek: Generations. He also wrote for television, including Land of the Lost. George Takei, his crewmate on the Enterprise, gives the tribute its center: "Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend." Minutes earlier, the broadcast notes the death of Eric Bauza, the Emmy-winning voice of Looney Tunes characters, at 47.

These full editions keep pulling in viewers long after they air: two September broadcasts, from the 28th and 29th, crossed a million views on the same day this one took off.