David Muir honored at TIME100 Gala, along with Demi Moore, Jalen Hurts and more

After being named in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2025 last week, David Muir was honored at TIME100 Gala in New York City on Thursday.

Muir, who's the the anchor and managing editor of "World News Tonight with David Muir" and co-anchor of news magazine "20/20," was among the icons spotlighted this year, along with Demi Moore, Jalen Hurts, Adrien Brody, Gisèle Pelicot and more.

TIME100's Gala came days after Pope Francis' death at the age of 88.

On the red carpet Thursday evening, Muir looked back on the historic 2015 town hall with the pope -- which he moderated in Spanish -- and the moment he met the pontiff inside the Vatican.

"I knew that he was just taking a measure of the man he was about to spend an hour with on this town hall, which had never been done before," Muir told TIME.

The anchor noted that it was a "humbling" experience.

"We talked about the young people waiting to talk to him," Muir said. "He was extraordinarily compassionate, moving and human."

Muir will lead comprehensive coverage from the Vatican of the death of Pope Francis, the 266th head of the Catholic Church, including the pope resting in state, the viewing in St. Peter's Basilica as worshippers pay their respects and coverage of his funeral mass.

Watch ABC News live coverage of the funeral for Pope Francis, "Celebrating Francis: The People's Pope," on Saturday, April 26, starting at 3:30 a.m. ET on ABC stations and streaming on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

WABC7 reporter Joelle Garguilo spoke with Muir on the red carpet about what he would tell a younger version of himself.

"At 13, I probably couldn't put words to the fact that I wanted get out there and see the world -- that there was something beyond the backyard, the playground, but that hunger, that appetite and the people that answered the letters and the calls of the local station, and let me in," Muir said. "I'm grateful to them."

Also on the red carpet, ABC's "Good Morning America" stopped Muir to ask who the most influential person in his life has been.

Saying it was impossible to pick just one, Muir named his parents -- who supported him from a young age when they drove him to his local TV station when he was just 13 years old -- the staff at the station who invited him on set and behind the scenes in 1987, and legendary ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer.

"Diane's an inspiration. She's the real icon," Muir told GMA. "We're all just grateful to sort of be in her glow."

Muir added that he's happy to "know that Diane's proud, and those parents back home are proud too."

Sawyer wrote a touching tribute to Muir for TIME, commending his extraordinary journalism and their friendship.

"Like Peter Jennings before him, David is authoritative and dynamic -- the first out the door to the story. Iraq's hunt for ISIS. Hurricanes, fires. He traveled days to hold the hands of starving children in Madagascar and South Sudan, leading to millions of dollars in donations to the World Food Programme," Sawyer wrote, referencing Muir's award-winning climate reporting.

She also referenced Muir's early days and his evolution into an influential journalistic force.

"I think I know what destiny looks like because I've seen a photo of a serious 13-year-old boy, talking his way into an internship at the local TV station," Sawyer wrote. "Now he's the anchor chosen for interviews by Popes and Presidents. He shows up calm, respectful, and fearless."

Full episodes of "World News Tonight with David Muir" are now available to stream on YouTube.