ABC News today announced three hours of special primetime coverage of the final 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, October 22 (8:00 – 11:00 p.m. ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos will lead coverage from New York City joined by “World News Tonight” Anchor David Muir and “ABC News Live Prime” Anchor Linsey Davis reporting on the latest developments on the state of the race, the election, the campaigns, candidates, and the issues most critical to voters. Network coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with a one-hour special, “Trump vs. Biden: The Final Presidential Debate – A Special Edition of 20/20.”
ABC News’ powerhouse political team will dissect the most significant moments of the night and provide context and analysis following the debate. ABC News Live will begin coverage at 7:00 p.m. ET to preview the debate on the network’s streaming news channel and will then simulcast ABC’s coverage and the debate to streaming viewers.
ABC News’ powerhouse political team will include Chief White House Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Jonathan Karl and Senior Congressional Correspondent and Lead Campaign Correspondent Mary Bruce reporting from Nashville, Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz, Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega, “World News Tonight” Weekend Anchor and Chief National Affairs Correspondent Tom Llamas, Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran, FiveThirtyEight Editor-in-Chief Nate Silver, Special Correspondent Matthew Dowd, and Chief Legal Analyst Dan Abrams. Contributors Chris Christie, Yvette Simpson, Rahm Emanuel, Kate Shaw, and Sara Fagen will provide analysis on the debate and candidates.
ABC News Live will kick off debate coverage at 7:00 p.m. ET on “ABC News Live Prime” with Anchor Linsey Davis taking a deep dive into the most important issues at stake in this election. ABC News Live will then simulcast ABC’s coverage and the debate, and immediately after, ABC News’ powerhouse political roundtable will add additional context and analysis following network programming.
Earlier in the day, Anchor Diane Macedo will anchor “ABC News Live Update” at 9:00 a.m. ET and 11:00 a.m. ET, and “Your Voice Your Vote: The Breakdown” with Moran at 3:00 p.m. ET, which will preview the debate and provide analysis the following day.
ABC News will have comprehensive digital coverage of the debate on ABCNews.com, the ABC News mobile app, and Apple News, with live updates, fact checks, key takeaways, breakout moments during the debate, and post-debate analysis.
New digital video brand Examined will explore voting in a pandemic and feature issues-based videos comparing where Trump and Biden stand on COVID-19, healthcare, the economy, climate change, election security, and racial justice.
FiveThirtyEight will preview the debate on the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast and survey voters in partnership with Ipsos to set a baseline to measure the debate’s effects. After the event, the team will publish a post-debate episode of the Politics podcast, an analysis piece written by Silver, and a post-debate Ipsos poll that looks at who voters think won the debate and how the debate changed (or didn’t change) the race.
ABC News Radio will offer three hours of live, anchored coverage the night of the debate, including a one-hour pre-show, followed by the debate and live post-debate analysis. Correspondent Aaron Katersky will anchor coverage with reporting and analysis by Correspondent Karen Travers, Political Analyst Steve Roberts, Political Director Rick Klein, Deputy Political Director MaryAlice Parks, and others from ABC News’ and FiveThirtyEight’s powerhouse political teams. ABC News Radio will also offer multiple one-minute Status Reports throughout the night.
ABC News’ flagship daily podcast “Start Here,” hosted by Brad Mielke, will preview what’s to come on debate morning and post a recap on Friday, October 23 covering all angles of the debate and featuring expert reporting analysis from ABC News’ political team.
ABC NewsOne, the affiliate news service of ABC News, will provide full coverage with Correspondent Marci Gonzalez reporting from the site of the debate and analysis from Klein. NewsOne provides news content and services for more than 200 ABC affiliates and international news partners.
Marc Burstein is the Senior Executive Producer of ABC News Special Events, and David Sloan is the Senior Executive Producer of Network Primetime Content.
