This 2020 presidential election cycle is, finally, coming to a close as we arrive at the final presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — with less than two weeks left to go before Election Day. And, of course, you’ll find plenty of coverage of this debate on Fox News.
So if Fox News is your TV news network of choice, you’ve come to the right place — we’ve got everything you need to know about the channel’s coverage plans for the Thursday, Oct. 22 debate, which are pretty similar to its coverage plan from the first debate and the vice presidential debate a couple weeks back.
The debate itself is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Thursday, and is set to run for 90 minutes. Fox News’ dedicated coverage, which will open up at the scheduled debate start time, will be anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, as is usually the case with this sort of special coverage. Baier and MacCallum will come to you live from outside the debate venue in Nashville, and they’ll be joined by the usual stable of Fox contributors: Dana Perino, Juan Williams, Katie Pavlich, Karl Rove, Donna Brazile and Brit Hume, along with some others.
Bill Hemmer, meanwhile, will provide some coverage for local Fox affiliates.
With the debate landing square in the middle of primetime, Fox News is going to adjust its schedule a bit. “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle” are both being bumped two hours from their normal slots — to 11 p.m. ET for Hannity and midnight for Ingraham. You can expect those shows to serve as extensions of the network’s debate coverage.
“Fox News @ Night With Shannon Bream” will close out the special debate programming bloc at 1 a.m. ET.
If you’re looking to stream Fox News’ coverage of this presidential debate, you’ll have the same options as usual: the Fox News Go app for mobile devices and TV streaming boxes like Apple TV and Roku, and on the Fox News website right here. You will need a valid TV provider login for those options. Free trials for online TV services like Sling, Hulu, YouTube TV and the like are available, as always.
Fox Nation, Fox News’ subscription streaming channel, will also feature a debate special hosted by Tomi Lahren.
If you don’t have the means to stream Fox News, you will still have plenty of free options for watching the debate itself, which will be streamed live and for free on YouTube by the broadcast networks and C-SPAN, as well as on Twitter and Facebook. If you go on social media on Thursday night, you’ll probably accidentally encounter a debate livestream.
Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate the debate, and she’ll have one tool at her disposal that the previous moderators did not — a mute button.
This week’s debate is the final presidential debate and the end of the debate cycle. Usually there are three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate, but this time we got one fewer presidential debate than we usually do. Donald Trump refused to participate in a virtual debate even though he had tested positive and treated for COVID-19 just days before the schedule date.
Election Day is Nov. 3.