Television habits will be fouled up Tuesday as midterm elections rule the airwaves.
Some network shows will be pre-empted, and news of national and local races will flit in and out of regular shows. Some radio stations will also find regularly scheduled programming interrupted.
Here’s what to look for on Election Day:
Networks
In addition to updates breaking into regular series, ABC, CBS and NBC will air one-hour specials at 9 p.m. that look at national races.
Local stations
Channels 2, 5 and 7 will begin coverage with late-afternoon newscasts (Channel 2 plans a special 6 p.m. newscast), but go wall-to-wall at 10 p.m., with reporters at the headquarters of candidates running for governor, attorney general and other offices. Channels 9 and 32 will follow races in earnest at 9 p.m. On-screen devices such as crawls will update local contests.
All-news cable station CLTV will feature election-related stories throughout the day, but its live, expanded coverage starts at 6:30 p.m.
Most stations expect to be in election mode until at least 11 p.m., and later if races are tight.
Most stations will have politicians offering in-studio analysis. Among the figures scheduled are former Atty. Gen. Roland Burris (Channel 9), former Gov. Jim Edgar (Channel 2), former Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood (CLTV), and former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (Channel 32).
Cable
The three all-news networks — CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC — will track races for governors and seats in the House and Senate all day. CNN and Fox News kick it up at 5 p.m., MSNBC an hour later.
Aaron Brown, Judy Woodruff and Paula Zahn will be CNN’s principal anchors, supported by senior political analysts Jeff Greenfield and Bill Schneider.
Brit Hume will do the same for Fox News, provide updates for “The Fox Report” and “The O’Reilly Factor,” and head a special from 8 p.m. to midnight.
“Hardball’s” Chris Matthews heads MSNBC’s coverage with NBC News/MSNBC political correspondent Norah O’Donnell and MSNBC’s Lester Holt.
Radio
Local stations doing special Election Night reports include WBBM-AM 780, WBEZ-FM 91.5, WGN-AM 720 and WLS-AM 890. Each station will begin its night at 7 p.m., and most will continue until at least midnight, with reporters staffed at key candidate headquarters. In addition:
– WBBM’s political editor emeritus Bob Crawford joins anchors David Roe and Ken Herrera.
– WBEZ will offer national coverage via National Public Radio.
– At 11 p.m., WGN’s Dave Stewart will host an hourlong post-election wrapup show.
– Museum of Broadcast Communications founder Bruce DuMont will join anchor Jim Johnson and City Hall reporter Bill Cameron in the WLS studio.
