Poor Diane Sawyer. ABC News kept her on the air for an entire 24 hours over the course of the inauguration. Not surprisingly, Sawyer started acting odd and goofy, with many wondering if she was drunk. She was rambling on about kids and the Jonas Brothers in an intoxicated, slurring fashion. But it turns out Sawyer didn’t attend a single inaugural ball (thus wasn’t overindulging in the open bar) – and her crazy, slurred speech was probably just due to extreme exhaustion.
The Inaugural Balls went on all night and it looks like Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer enjoyed the open bars. Thanks, ABC, for not pulling her off the air despite all this slurred nonsense.
Thanks to hero intern Bette Bentley for compiling this wonderful video of America’s Drunkest Former Nixon Staffer Journalist mumbling things about children and boots.
CORRECTION, JESUS: Diane Sawyer did not attend a single ball! She was up all night reporting. So they just had her on GMA after a full 24 hours of being on television despite the fact that no news actually happened yesterday, or this morning. It was a sick Jackass-style stunt of some kind we think?
[From Gawker]
Wow, that was really, really harsh of ABC. I’m fairly certain they’ve got other reporters. They should have figured out some kind of shift schedule or something. Sawyer really does seem like she’s inebriated, but unless she had enough time to get away from the cameras and consistently down a few, I doubt there’s any chance of that. Exhaustion can do crazy things and really mess with your head in a way you wouldn’t believe possible… until it happens. I wonder if she or ABC will address this matter on the air and offer an explanation? Hopefully they’ll be more mindful in the future, and will work out some way to keep their reporters from appearing soused on the air.
It’s not just drink that can make you sound and act like that.
I think she was flyin’, but she may have BEEN high BECAUSE she’d been expected to work that kind of day.
She seems happy, though! lol
Keep any person awake for that long, and you’ll get people who look and talk like they were drunk.
She spoke and looked beyond anything you can expect under such circumstances.
By the way, the person who should get criticized is the one who thought it was a good idea not to let the people on the air- proper sleep time.
Always a professional, glad to see she is real. Great commentator and reporter, no explanation needed. Think a big deal is being made for nothing substantial.
Yeah, keep me up a little past my bedtime and I’ll act weird. I would have passed out on television, haha.
Ha ha, nice one. I know Courtney Love when I see her. Tryin’ to pull the wool over our eyes.
How about just too darn old ?
Aww I feel bad for her – she must have been exhausted! In all seriousness, I recently saw one of the local reporters in my area do an “experiment” where she stayed awake for 36 hours and was monitored to see how if affected various aspects of her mind and body throughout that 36 hours. By 24 hours, the doctors said that her mind and body were operating as if she were basically drunk, so this all makes complete sense. ABC should really think twice before expecting anyone to do that again!
Ugh. Poor Diane, ridiculous ABC suits. I stayed up all night while in grad school, though it wasn’t on purpose; I just couldn’t sleep after being stressed about a paper I was finishing. When I hit the 24-hour mark and headed to campus with the paper, I began to feel loopy and noticed that my reaction time to people and things around me had substantially slowed. I also forgot to finish buttoning my shirt, so the assistant in the dept office may have gotten a glimpse of some of the purple undergarment that I was wearing that day. Whoops. I vowed to never again stay up all night and to double-check all future buttoning attempts.
They’re lucky she didn’t start hallucinating or have a cardiac event. Very irresponsible of the network.
I actually had the experience of going about 24 hours without sleep. Not by choice–it was due to travel and this abroad program I was doing. I basically felt like I was drunk and not in control of my body. When I finally got to sleep, I lost consciousness immediately and slept like a rock. It is not a pleasant feeling.
Looks like she got new lips too. Maybe that was the problem.
I’m with Dante on this one. I’m 34, and I haven’t been able to stay up all night without looking like ass and developing sleep slur since I was 25 or so.
It was too much to ask of this woman. In short…she’s too old for this shit.
I didn’t see her on GMA but if she was up for 24 hours I can imagine she might have acted strangely. She may be used to crazy hours and all but she’s no spring chicken and ABC should not have prevailed upon her for those kind of hours. It’s ridiculous! Let the woman have some sleep, no one is irreplaceable. Once you hit 40 or 50 it gets harder, or impossible, to pull all-nighters and recover the next day like a 20 yr old.
Diane definitely has the ABC clout to demand a break if she wants one. Like John Roberts, her hubris made her stumble on inauguration day.
When I was younger (say 18-21) I used to often not sleep for 36 hours due to travel or leaving essays until the very last minute- and a couple of times I stayed up past 48 hours- but I would always notice that staying up past 24 hours would always cause me to start hallucinating or cause what I can only describe as white dots obstucting my vision. I know other people who used to see visions of things on the wall when they had to pull an all-nighter finishing work!
I think your body won’t let you do that after a certain age though, as last year I stayed up a couple of times over 36 hours (24 years old then)and I honestly felt drunk the next day and everything seemed to be in slow motion- not a pleasant experience!
I’ve had 2 kids and gone without sleep for days — you DON’T act like “this”. She was obviously drunk. Embarassing. They should’ve replaced her for that segment.
@ Susan. I would hope that wouldn’t actually go full days without any sleep. You probably at least took naps when the children were napping. That was a stupid comment. Anyway, Diane Sawyer is too old to be staying up for that long.