Election Day is here, and the major news networks are prepared for a long night — and potentially a long week.
With over 50 million people early voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, Tuesday night will offer plenty of results to thumb through even if an ultimate winner isn’t called until later in the week, and most of the news networks will kick off their election night coverage at 6 p.m. ET, with CNN even starting at 12 a.m. ET while NBC News begins at 5 p.m. ET.
MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki will return to the Big Board — and will even be livestreamed on Peacock and other social platforms — while Fox News will see Bill Hemmer steering the “Bill”-board.
Most networks have scheduled eight hours of election night programming from 6 p.m. ET to 2 a.m. ET, with a result for the presidential showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump not expected immediately. As such, they have also plotted out contingency plans for further election week coverage.
See below for a full breakdown of the major news networks’ plans for election night coverage on Tuesday, and beyond, and how you can tune into each.
CNN
What time coverage starts: 12 a.m. ET, led by Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper beginning at 4 p.m. ET
Streaming options: CNN coverage will stream live without requiring a pay TV login from 7 p.m.-3 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 5, on CNN connected TV and mobile apps and on CNN.com. It will also stream live on Max.
Beginning at 12 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Boris Sanchez, Jessica Dean, Erica Hill, Kasie Hunt are among the anchors making up the morning skeleton crew, before John Berman, Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan anchor from 7-10 a.m. ET and Cooper takes over at 10 a.m. ET. Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett will anchor from 12-4 p.m. ET.
At 4 p.m. ET, Tapper and Cooper will take over the anchor desk and be joined by Dana Bash, Erin Burnett, Audie Cornish and Chris Wallace, with John King at the Magic Wall. As coverage extends past 2 a.m. ET, John Berman and Hunt will lead with Phil Mattingly at the Magic Wall, and they will be joined by Harry Enten, Mark Preston, Eva McKend, Alayna Treen, Dean and Omar Jimenez.
MSNBC
What time coverage starts: 6 p.m. ET, led by Rachel Maddow
Streaming options: Livestream available on MSNBC.com and MSNBC’s YouTube channel. The Kornacki Cam will be streaming at MSNBC.com, YouTube, X, TikTok and Peacock.
Maddow will lead MSNBC’s election coverage beginning at 6 p.m. ET, and will be joined at MSNBC’s NYC headquarters by Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, Alex Wagner, Lawrence O’Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle and Jen Psaki. Coverage will continue on throughout Tuesday night.
Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Claire McCaskill will share their insights from the campaign trail to “The Insiders” panel throughout Tuesday’s coverage, while contributors and analysts — including Nick Hasen, Matt Sanderson, John Fortier, Edward Foley, Nate Persily, Franita Tolson, Michael Morse — will also be on standby to provide their expert insight.
Election board celebrity Steve Kornacki will return to the Big Board as each state’s results come in on Tuesday, with the Kornacki Cam streaming across Peacock, MSNBC.com and social platforms.
Fox News
What time coverage starts: 6 p.m. ET, led by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum
Streaming options: Livestream available on FoxNews.com, with Fox News Digital’s election hub enabling users to track the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races.
Baier and MacCallum will kick off Fox News’ eight-hour election special coverage as they host “Fox News Democracy 2024,” with analysis and commentary from Dana Perino, Brit Hume, Harold Ford Jr., Jessica Tarlov, Karl Rove and Kellyanne Conway. Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity will also appear throughout the night, with live coverage running overnight.
Fox News will have its own “Bill”-board, which will see Bill Hemmer break down election data county-by-county and state-by-state as it comes in. The “Bill”-board will employ augmented reality (AR) technology and touchscreen applications as Fox News upgrades its Studio M, the home for election coverage.
NBC News
What time coverage starts: 5 p.m. ET, led by Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie
Streaming options: NBC News Now will stream live programming for 40+ hours, beginning at 7 a.m. ET Tuesday. Peacock will offer a multiview experience beginning at 6 p.m. ET, which will feature NBC News NOW, the Kornacki Cam and a map analysis of the results. NBCNews.com and the NBC News app will also offer a live blog.
NBC News will deliver 24 hours of consecutive live coverage to viewers on their local NBC stations for the first time ever. Hallie Jackson and Tom Llamas will begin election coverage at 5 p.m. ET on NBC and NBC News Now before Holt and Guthrie lead coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET, and will be joined by Jackson and Kristen Welker while Llamas runs the Big Board. That coverage will continue until 2 a.m. ET, when Kate Snow and Craig Melvin take the reins alongside Chuck Todd, Kelly O’Donnell and Ryan Nobles until 6 a.m. ET.
Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will take the baton at 6 a.m. ET with a special election edition of “Today,” before Melvin anchors from 10 a.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET. NBC News Daily will air from 12 p.m. ET to 5 p.m. ET on local channels and will stream on NBC News Now, with Snow, Vicky Nguyen, Morgan Radford and Zinhle Essamuah anchoring. At 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Holt will anchor a special one-hour edition of NBC Nightly News.
ABC News
What time coverage starts: 7 p.m. ET, led by David Muir
Streaming options: ABC News Live will host 72+ hours of Election coverage beginning Monday, Nov. 4, at 2 a.m. across Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, Roku, Amazon, Samsung TV and other platforms. The streaming news channel will host an election night preshow at 4 p.m. ET anchored by Kayna Whitworth, which will lead into ABC News Live’s simulcast of the network’s coverage at 7 p.m. ET.
Muir will head up the network’s coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET, and will be joined by Linsey Davis, Martha Raddatz, Jonathan Karl, Mary Bruce, Rachel Scott, Terry Moran and Rick Klein, while Pierre Thomas, Aaron Katersky, Dan Abrams and Kate Shaw make up the “Ballot Watch” desk. By 2 a.m. ET, “World News Now” will pick up coverage before a special edition of “Good Morning America First Look” begins at 4 a.m. ET.
CBS News
What time coverage starts: 4 p.m. ET on CBS News 24/7 and at 7 p.m. ET on CBS, led by Norah O’Donnell
Streaming options: CBS News 24/7 will be begin coverage at 4 p.m. ET with Vladimir Duthiers, Ed O’Keefe and Lindsey Reiser. At 7 p.m., special election coverage will stream on CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+.
O’Donnell will lead coverage starting at 7 p.m. ET, and will be joined by Margaret Brennan, John Dickerson, Gayle King, Cecilia Vega, Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe. At 6 a.m. ET on Wednesday, CBS Mornings will air a special election edition with Gayle King, Nate Burleson, Vladimir Duthiers and Tony Dokoupil. CBS’ evening news with O’Donnell will move to the election headquarters in NYC from Friday, Nov. 1 through Wednesday, Nov. 6.
Election Night Live with Brian Williams on Prime Video
What time coverage starts: 5 p.m. ET
Streaming information: The Brian Williams special will be airing exclusively on Prime Video, and will be available to Amazon customers regardless of if they have a Prime account.
The former NBC Nightly News anchor will head up Prime Video’s election first-ever night coverage beginning at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. Williams will share real-time poll results and commentary alongside a range of analysts and experts across news and traditional media. This is streaming’s first big dive into the live election coverage waters.
NewsNation
What time coverage starts: 6 p.m. ET, led by Chris Cuomo, Elizabeth Vargas, and Leland Vittert
Streaming information: Simulcast on the CW from 8 p.m. – 12 a.m. ET, with coverage available on NewsNationNow.com and the NewsNation app.
Cuomo, Vargas and Vittert will lead coverage from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET, and will be joined by Dan Abrams, Chris Stirewalt and Connell McShane, who will helm the Big Board. McShane and Anna Kooiman will anchor overnight coverage. National correspondents Robert Sherman and Brooke Shafer will report live from the Trump Campaign Headquarters while Kellie Meyer and Mills Hayes lead coverage from the Harris Campaign Headquarters.
Telemundo
What time coverage starts: 4 p.m. ET, led by Julio Vaqueiro and Arantxa Loizaga
Streaming options: Telemundo coverage will stream across Peacock, Roku, YouTube, Samsung TV Plus, Fire TV, as well as Noticias Telemundo’s accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Decisión 2024 election coverage will kick off at 4 p.m. ET led by Damià Bonmatí and Claudia de la Fuente before Vaqueiro and Loizaga take the lead at 7 p.m. ET. They’ll be joined by Vanessa Hauc, Johana Suárez, Bonmatí, Nicole Suárez and Rogelio Mora-Tagle, who will who will be at the Big Board. At 6 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Guad Venegas and de la Fuente will pick up coverage until noon ET on Noticias Telemundo AHORA and later on Telemundo network. Coverage will include reporting on the impact of the Latino vote, races involving Hispanic candidates as well as national reactions from Latino voters.
CNBC
What time coverage starts: 7 p.m. ET, led by Carl Quintanilla
Streaming information: Explainer and analytical videos will be published on CNBC.com, YouTube and other social media platforms, with clips from the “Your Money, Your Vote” special and an election live blog available on CNBC.com throughout the night.
Quintanilla will anchor “Your Money, Your Vote” beginning at 7 p.m. ET and will be joined by CNBC’s Jim Cramer and Sara Eisen. At midnight ET, Contessa Brewer, Frank Holland and Brian Sullivan will anchor the special until 5 a.m. ET, when CNBC airs a special four-hour edition of “Squawk Box” until 9 a.m. ET with anchors Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin.
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