No Boozing: Diane Sawyer Was Reportedly Just Tired

There are few worse things for a news anchor than becoming a story themselves, but unfortunately for Diane Sawyer, that’s exactly what happened last night. The sixty-six-year-old was a hot mess during her election night coverage on ABC, slurring words, making strange comments about exclamation points and calling Obama “Orama”. Within minutes, Twitter was awash with allegations of drunkenness, but if sources over at the network are to be believed, something else was behind her less than stellar performance.

According to The Daily Mail, executives are saying she stayed up the night before preparing and that lack of sleep coupled with all the Hurricane Sandy coverage she did combined to sink her performance. Given what a constant professional Sawyer has been for decades, that explanation sounds more believable than her pounding the sauce before airtime.

Nothing tests the competence levels of news anchors like election night coverage. With hours to fill off prompter and a constantly changing forecast, they must maintain composure, speak intelligently on the issues as they arise and project professionalism at all times. The better anchors typically rise to the occasion and come out the other side smelling like a rose, but it just wasn’t meant to be last night for Sawyer. Luckily, the public will probably be willing to forgive her thanks to the brilliant track record.

Earlier today, Sawyer hit up her Twitter to speak publically for the first time, but not surprisingly, she didn’t really say much. She read the good tweets, the bad tweets and the funny tweets and will see us all on World News Tonight. Expect a whole lot less drama.