Was Diane Sawyer drunk on live television during the election? (+video)

Was Diane Sawyer drunk on ABC?

This article was updated at 4:40 pm EST to include a tweet posted by Ms. Sawyer and video of the incident.

Was Diane Sawyer drunk on live television during Tuesday’s election? That is the question making the rounds on social media websites on Wednesday, after the ABC host reportedly nearly fell asleep during the network’s coverage of the election.

At one point during the night, Ms. Sawyer said, “OK, I wanna — can we have our music, because this is another big one here? Minnesota, we’re ready to project Minnesota, rrright now. … Well, tonight we know that President Barack has won Minnesota.”

During other points throughout the night, Ms. Sawyer appeared to doze off and seemed weary from the recent torrent of news. Over the course of the night a number of social media sites boosted attention to Ms. Sawyer, with a number of tweets being posted with the hashtag #DrunkDianeSawyer.

Some tweeters joked that a more fun-loving Sawyer was a plot by ABC to boost viewership. Several Twitter followers said they were drawn to the network by word that Sawyer was behaving, by one description, “a bit wacky.’’

“Bad night for Romney,’’ one tweeter summed up. “Worse night for Diane Sawyer?’’

A number of people characterized Sawyer’s speech as resembling that of someone who had been drinking or taken muscle relaxers, including some in the media world who were watching the election results live.

“Diane Sawyer’s name is trending. Many people saying she seems drunk on air. Alternative theory: she gets this way when she’s really tired,” tweeted New York Times reporter Brian Stelter.

While a spokesperson for ABC did not comment when asked by The Associated Press, Ms. Sawyer’s representative told the Daily Mail that she was not drunk on any kind of drugs.

“Diane’s fine, she’s exhausted. Diane’s been up for days and she’s had many sleepless nights. She was covering the hurricane and then preparing for the election broadcast,” said the unnamed source. “If you knew Diane you’d realize she’s one of the hardest working people on television. She likes to cram things in, she likes to have every fact at her finger tips… and I think that came at the expense of the broadcast.”

That said, nobody looked more irritated than co-anchor George Stephanopoulos who appeared stone-faced during the entirety of the clip, and offered no comment on the incident Wednesday.