Where can I watch the US elections on TV and online?

After all those Halloween horror movies, you’re probably still a little nervous, so you might look forward to a few quiet weeks watching soaps and period dramas. But some people are a direct hit with punishment, and Tuesday night they’ll be preparing for what could be scariest on TV this year: the results of the US presidential election.

If you thought you were going to spend the night in a haunted house, try to pass the night and watch America decide who will be its next leader. It promises to be a real night of horror, and despite the advice of Covid-19 from health officials, most of us will be watching with our hands clasped tightly over our faces.

Due to the time difference, coverage on this side of the Atlantic starts sometime after 11:00 PM and continues all night. Numerous analyzes will be carried out after the elections if the matches are still holding in your eyelids.

But it won’t be the same as staying up to see the Oscars. At least with the Oscars, if you fall to bed at 9 a.m., you know who won the best movie. But due to the large number of postal ballot papers to be counted, we still probably don’t have a clear winner when we blink on Wednesday morning.

All eyes will, of course, be on the handful of battlefield states that might decide the election of the electoral college, and we can know quickly enough who carried the decisive state of Florida. Otherwise everything is in the air and the coverage will likely keep us in suspense until the final count.

Add in the tension that Donald Trump created on absentee ballots, not to mention that this election is probably the greatest test American democracy has been exposed to and that you have what it takes to be a real nail bite. So go up and down – you don’t want them to be turned upside down six hours before the end.

So buckle up, have the life-saving appliance ready, and follow our guide to watch the US elections on TV and online.

RTÉ

Ireland’s national broadcaster will cover the election results on RTÉ One during that long, dark night for America’s soul, starting with a US presidential election special that starts at 11:15 p.m. and lasts late into the night. Don’t panic: you are in the competent hands of Brian O’Donovan, RTÉ correspondent in Washington, whose more affable presence will gloss over the bitterest news from the US. Back at the RTÉ studios, Caitriona Perry, a former Washington correspondent, will run the entire circus with the help of Robert Shortt and Carole Coleman.

At 3:30 a.m., the baton will be handed over to CBS News in the US, with simulcast coverage of the US presidential election until about 6 a.m.

At this stage you can take a short break while listening to Morning Ireland’s analysis of the results on RTÉ Radio One. Richard Downes in Washington and Rachael English in Dublin begin a full day reporting the election consequences.

You can also listen to a special episode of RTÉ’s US election podcast States of Mind on Wednesday morning, hosted by Brian O’Donovan and journalist Jackie Fox.

On Wednesday night, as most of us wake up from a long, well-deserved nap, the aftermath will be covered more in a prime time special with Richard Downes.

BBC

Aunt Beeb will fulfill her public broadcasting mandate by covering the elections on BBC One, BBC News Channel and the BBC’s iPlayer. We can’t get iPlayer here, but the polls will also be broadcast internationally on BBC World News and broadcast live on the BBC News website.

The BBC coverage begins at 11.30 p.m. and lasts until 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The program will be moderated by Katty Kay in Washington and Andrew Neil in London. Jon Sopel and Clive Myrie will be “embedded” in the Trump and Biden campaigns, while reporters Emily Maitlis and Nick Bryant will parachute to battlefield states, among others, to explain once again how this electoral college works and why The election result is usually decided by just two or three voters in a Michigan shotgun factory.

Christian Fraser will explain the elections through a huge graphic screen and a host of political experts and strategists, and Tina Dahely will provide the latest news from the vote.

sky

Sky News gives him socks for the US election with live results, expert analysis and special guests, but that doesn’t matter. The broadcaster’s true Augmented Reality studio is where you can imagine which candidate will lead the Race to the White House when the results come in from each state. Cool.

The coverage begins at 10 p.m. with the America Decides results program, which is anchored by Dermot Murnahan and in which Sky-US correspondent Cordelia Lynch and guests such as former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman and former British Ambassador to the USA, Kim Darroch , are represented. Sky will team up with NBC in the US – both of which are part of the Comcast Group – to provide the most accurate and up-to-date data on the progress of the elections and to provide real-time results from every state and county in the US it’s either red or blue.

You can get Sky News on Sky TV Channel 501 or Freeview Channel 132. The Sky News website also broadcasts the results live in case you can’t get to a TV.

Virgin Media

Virgin Media will partner with CNN to provide full coverage of the night’s election results, including live segments from Washington. It starts at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night when Matt Cooper and Ciara Doherty comment on the election on The Tonight Show. You’ll be back at the same time on Wednesday and Thursday nights for more analysis on the impact.

The next morning, from 7am to 10am, Mark Cagney and the Ireland AM team will be there to help with our election hangover.

On the Internet

Irishtimes.com will publish an election live blog and news day and night.

All the major TV channels will stream results on their websites, but they will also look for results and analysis on these websites:

Politifact.com
The website, operated by the Poynter Institute, aims to check every utterance and outbreak of US election candidates using their Truth-O-Meter. It will closely monitor the election results, but will not stand in front of polling stations with automatic weapons.

FiveThirtyEight.com
Founded by statistician Nate Silver, its editor-in-chief, the 538 is named for the number of voters on the electoral college, i.e. those who really decide who will be the next president, not the millions of voters who turn out to be. The page has an in-depth analysis of the election with articles like “I’m here to remind you Trump can still win” and “Will Joe Biden toast if he loses Pennsylvania?”

CNN.com
CNN is available on Virgin Media Television, depending on which package you’re on. It is branded with the Trump stamp of disapproval, which means that it is a reliable news agency largely criticizing Trump and his disruptive political style. If you can’t include it in your TV package, the website has extensive coverage of the election results.

Foxnews.com
Fox News will broadcast complete, unbiased and impartial coverage of the election results online. Unfortunately, that’s only available in an alternate universe. In this universe, the channel will perform its usual Trump cheerleading.

NYTimes.com
The New York Times can rest assured that Trump’s newspaper enemy and whoever broke the history of his industrial tax evasion in an inglorious career will ignore Trump’s “false news” or bow to one of his sinister threats against the media.