The 2020 political conventions will be unlike anything we’ve seen before. So, what actually will we see?
Each of the major networks has laid out convention coverage plans, and yet they admit they are wading into uncharted waters with conventions that won’t look like the typical convention because of the coronavirus.
The Republican convention — moved from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, and then back to Charlotte — has been so scaled back that it has been relocated from an arena to a convention center. More notably, President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 10 that his acceptance speech will come from either the White House or Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The Democratic convention, too, looked different. While anchored in Milwaukee, most of it was held virtually.
That means we aren’t going to see the normal scenes of network anchors hunkered down inside arenas with reporters spread out all over the host city. We’re also not going to see wall-to-wall coverage on the main networks, although the networks’ streaming services will have complete convention coverage.
Here’s what the major network coverage will look like:
ABC
ABC will have programming each night of the conventions from 10 to 11 p.m. Eastern. George Stephanopoulos will lead the coverage and will be joined by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and “ABC News Live Prime” anchor Linsey Davis.
The coverage will be rounded out by “Nightline” anchor Byron Pitts, Martha Raddatz, correspondents Jonathan Karl, Pierre Thomas, Tom Llamas, Cecilia Vega, Terry Moran, as well as FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver and a host of correspondents.
Senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce, White House correspondent Rachel Scott, and correspondent Alex Perez will report live from the actual conventions.
CBS
CBS News will air special convention coverage on the main network from 10 to 11 p.m. Eastern each night of the conventions. “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell will lead the coverage from the CBS studio in Washington, D.C. She will be joined there by John Dickerson, Maria Elena Salinas, Jamal Simmons and Leslie Sanchez.
Convention programming also will include “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, political correspondent Ed O’Keefe and other correspondents Major Garrett, Weijia Jiang and Nikole Killion, as well as contributors: former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, Democratic strategist Joel Payne and former Marco Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan.
NBC and MSNBC
NBC News will air a special report each night of the conventions from 10 to 11 p.m. Eastern. Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie will anchor from the NBC News headquarters in New York, while Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell will be stationed at the network’s Washington bureau.
For more extensive coverage, MSNBC will be live each night from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern. That includes special editions of Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show and Chris Hayes’ 8 p.m. show. Then Reid will join Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace at 9 p.m. from the New York studios. Brian Williams will take over at 11 p.m. and Ari Melber at 1 a.m. Reporters Hallie Jackson, Peter Alexander, Kristen Welker, Mike Memoli, Ali Vitali, Shaquille Brewster, Geoff Bennett, Vaughn Hillyard and Monica Alba will be stationed at various locations.
Fox News
Fox News will kick off its convention coverage on Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern with a special “Democracy 2020: Convention Kickoff.” Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will host.
Baier and MacCallum also will co-anchor convention coverage, which, like the networks, will air nightly at 10 p.m. They will be joined by political analyst Brit Hume, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, “The Daily Briefing’s” Dana Perino, “The Five’s” Juan Williams and contributors Donna Brazile, Karl Rove and Katie Pavlich.
For the convention weeks, Laura Ingraham’s show will move to 11 p.m. and Shannon Bream’s show will air at midnight.
CNN
CNN will have special convention coverage from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. each day of both the DNC (Aug. 17-20) and RNC (Aug. 24-27). The special coverage will be hosted by Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash, and John King, with Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon joining the conversation from midnight to 2 a.m. CNN will have reporters at both locations of the conventions.
Commentators for the DNC will include Van Jones, Jennifer Granholm, Andrew Yang, and Scott Jennings. Commentators for the RNC will include Granholm, Rick Santorum, David Urban and Amanda Carpenter.
In addition, Daniel Dale will contribute real-time fact-checking and Dr. Sanjay Gupta will provide any updates regarding the coronavirus.
PBS
Most PBS stations will have special coverage from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern. “PBS NewsHour” anchor Judy Woodruff will anchor convention coverage from PBS’s studio in Arlington, Virginia. Coverage also will include reports and commentary from senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz, correspondent Lisa Desjardins and White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.
Guests will include “Cook Political Report” national editor Amy Walter, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post national political reporter and moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week” Robert Costa, “American Greatness” editor Chris Buskirk, and former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.
This piece originally appeared in The Poynter Report, our daily newsletter for everyone who cares about the media. Subscribe to The Poynter Report here. Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer.
