Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell Lead NBC News Primetime Coverage Starting at 8 p.m. ET
Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid and Brian Williams Anchor MSNBC Pre- and Post-Debate Special Coverage Starting at 8 p.m. ET
Chuck Todd Anchors NBC News NOW Pre-Debate Special starting at 7 p.m. ET
Debate and Network Coverage Streams Live at 8 p.m. ET on NBC News Digital Platforms, Peacock and More
Oct. 19, 2020 – Kristen Welker, NBC News White House Correspondent and co-anchor of Weekend TODAY, will moderate the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, Oct. 22. NBC News, MSNBC and NBC News Digital will deliver full special coverage and analysis of the final debate.
NBC NEWS COVERAGE BEGINS AT 8 P.M. ET
- Starting at 8 p.m. ET, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and TODAY co-anchor and NBC News chief legal correspondent Savannah Guthrie will anchor from NBC News Headquarters in New York and Meet the Press moderator and NBC News political director Chuck Todd and NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and senior Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchellwill anchor from Washington, D.C.
MSNBC SPECIAL “DECISION 2020” COVERAGE BEGINS AT 8 P.M. ET
- Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid and Brian Williams will anchor MSNBC’s special “Decision 2020” coverage of the final presidential debate on Thursday, Oct. 22.
- Starting at 8 p.m. ET, Maddow, Wallace and Reid kick off coverage ahead of the debate live from NBC News World Headquarters in New York. They will be joined by a team of MSNBC political correspondents and experts with reporting and insight throughout the night – including NBC News national political correspondent Steve Kornacki, who will be stationed at the Big Board with the latest numbers and polling data.
- Once the presidential debate wraps, Maddow, Wallace and Reid join Williams for post-debate coverage and analysis. Ari Melber continues special coverage at 12:30 a.m. ET.
DEBATE AND PRE-DEBATE SPECIAL TO STREAM ON NBC NEWS NOW; FULL DEBATE COVERAGE AND FACT CHECKS ACROSS NBC NEWS DIGITAL
- NBC News NOW will provide debate coverage for free, including a pre-show hosted by Chuck Todd, and joined by Kasie Hunt, at 7 p.m. ET followed by the network special coverage at 8 p.m. ET. NBC News NOW is available to stream live and on demand on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, as well as on YouTube TV, Fubo, Xumo, Pluto, Tubi and NBC News’ OTT apps on Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV. Viewers can also stream the debate live on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
- The NBC News digital politics team will live-blog the debate with minute-by-minute updates, highlights and takeaways. The live blog will feature reporting from Alex Seitz-Wald and Sahil Kapur, analysis from NBC News reporters and contributors and fact checks by Jane C. Timm and Adam Edelman.
- Following the debate, NBCNews.com will have a panel of experts share who they think won the debate and why.
- The NBC Stay Tuned team will cover the most important moments and will partner with Snapchat to create near-live highlights of the debates. The dynamically updating episodes will be an edited highlights Show from key debate moments within Stay Tuned’s channel.
- The NBC News Data Graphics team will be tracking topics covered, whether the candidates have stayed on topic and time spent per answer throughout the debates in a digital interactive. In addition, they will continuously update their interactives on voting, polling, early results, user predictor tools and more.
PLUS, NBC NEWS AND MSNBC CORRESPONDENTS AND REPORTERS ON THE GROUND IN TENNESSEE AND BATTLEGROUND STATES ACROSS THE U.S.
- NBC News and MSNBC correspondents and reporters will contribute to debate coverage and provide the latest reporting and analysis across both networks and online, including Hallie Jackson, Peter Alexander, Mike Memoli, Ali Vitali, Jon Allen and Shannon Pettypiece on the ground in Nashville.
- NBC News’ County to County reporters continue their on-the-ground reporting in key bellwether counties across the country, including Dasha Burns in Beaver County, Pennsylvania; Ellison Barber in Miami-Dade County, Florida; Vaughn Hillyard in Maricopa County, Arizona; and Shaquille Brewster in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
- Plus, Chris Jansing will be reporting live from nearby battleground Georgia and will speak with undecided voters before and after the debate.
- Rehema Ellis will watch and discuss the debate with first-time voters from Stony Brook University.
SPECIAL COVERAGE AND REPORTING OF THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL RACE CONTINUES ACROSS ALL NBC NEWS PLATFORMS
NBC News will continue to follow the 2020 presidential race across all its platforms including:
- Almost a year after NBC News’ County to County project was launched and as the 2020 presidential election nears, the team is doubling down on its on-the-ground reporting in these all-important, must-win counties bringing the latest local updates from five key bellwether counties in swing states across the country.
- Following the launch of Vote Watch last month, NBC News and MSNBC continue to cover issues related to U.S. election security and voting across all platforms led by the networks’ Vote Watch Unit – a team of more than 24 correspondents and reporters focused on social media misinformation and disinformation, voting machines and technology, election administration, voting procedures, rights and access, voter disenfranchisement and voting rights.
- The network’s Plan Your Vote interactive tool encourages Americans to plan out when and how they will vote this year. More than one million people have used NBCNews.com’s Plan Your Voteinteractive tool to learn everything they need to know about casting a ballot in the 2020 presidential election.
- In collaboration with the Cook Political Report, NBC News is creating Swing The Election, an exciting interactive tool that allows users to see how changes in turnout and support among different demographic groups could ‘swing’ the 2020 election.
- The NBC News National Polling Average is a new national polling average, aggregating ten reputable polls daily, all curated by the Decision Desk and Political Unit.
- In a data collaboration with TargetSmart, NBC News independently analyzes and aggregates early-voting both nationally and in available states, sharing how many Americans have requested a ballot, received it and voted early (both in-person and by mail). The Early Vote interactive also includes additional demographic information about these voters, including partisanship, gender and age and lets the user to compare 2020’s numbers to historical 2016 data.
- Road to 270 is an interactive web tool where users can design and map their own road to the presidency and see the latest scenarios from Chuck Todd and Steve Kornacki.
- NBCNews.com will continue to publish Election Confessions, where voters can share their anonymous thoughts about the presidential candidates and the state of the country.
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For more information, contact:
Richard Hudock
NBC News
e: Richard.Hudock@nbcuni.com
Joya Manasseh
NBC News
e: Joya.Manasseh@nbcuni.com
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NBC NEWS AND MSNBC
More Americans watch NBC News and MSNBC than any news organization in the world. NBC News’ award-winning television news broadcasts include TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and Dateline NBC – all of which closed out 2019 at #1 in the key news demo for the fourth straight year. Additionally, NBC News produces Third Hour of TODAY, TODAY with Hoda and Jenna and Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist, as well as primetime specials and breaking news reports. MSNBC is the premier cable destination for breaking and live news coverage, in-depth analysis, and influential voices – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The rapidly-growing NBC News Digital Group, including its streaming news service NBC News NOW, along with the SiriusXM TODAY Show and MSNBC radio channels and NBC News Radio on the iHeartMedia 24/7 News Network, provides continuous content to consumers wherever they are, whenever they want it.
NBC News and MSNBC are part of the NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation. For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit www.NBCUniversal.com.
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