Diane Sawyer Leads ABC’s Richard Simmons Special at 9 p.m.
The richard simmons special airs on ABC at 9 p.m. as an hour-long broadcast hosted by Diane Sawyer. ABC is using the special to revisit the disappearance that pulled Simmons out of public view in 2014 and the trail of questions that followed through his death in 2024.
Diane Sawyer on ABC
The Mystery of Richard Simmons: A Diane Sawyer Special centers on what happened after Simmons vanished from public view. Friends and journalists tried to reach him in 2014 and failed, and the special puts that public absence back in front of viewers at a fixed prime-time slot instead of leaving it to scattered clips and speculation.
Simmons also pushed back at the time. In a phone interview with the Today show, he denied reports that he was being held against his will by his manager and family. That denial matters because it sits alongside the unanswered gap that followed, rather than closing it.
2014 Disappearance
A mysterious hospitalization followed Simmons’ disappearance, and his Beverly Hills exercise studio closed soon after. Those details are the spine of the story ABC is airing now: a public figure who stepped away, then left behind separate events that never fully added up in the public record.
By the time Simmons died in 2024, the Los Angeles Coroner’s office reportedly said he died from complications from recent falls and heart diseases. The special arrives after that death, so the broadcast is less a fresh reveal than a television reexamination of a file that stayed open for years.
How viewers can watch
ABC is available in DIRECTV’s MyNews Genre Pack, which costs $39.99 per month and includes a five-day free trial. Fubo also carries ABC through its Sports + News package, regularly priced at $55.99 per month, with a $10 discount for new signups, 28 channels, unlimited cloud DVR recording, and streaming on up to 10 screens at once.
Sling Select offers 10+ live TV channels and thousands of on-demand titles, with streaming on up to three devices at once, and ABC is also available on Hulu + Live TV. For viewers without cable, the practical choice is simple: pick the live-TV service that already carries ABC and set the 9 p.m. airing on Tuesday night, because this special is built around one unresolved public retreat rather than a new chapter in Simmons’ life.
