Earlier this week, Variety reported that ABC would blow out their entire Tuesday entertainment programming in favor of five-hour Super Tuesday coverage. Today ABC announced that Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos would join Charles Gibson for the “Showdown: Coast to Coast” special, beginning at 8pmET.
And although the plan is for the special to last five hours, the press release says, “ABC News will broadcast at least five hours of live primetime coverage.”
ABC News NOW will broadcast wall-to-wall coverage as well, hosted by Sam Donaldson and Laura Marquez.
Click continued to see the full press release…
ABC NEWS TO BROADCAST 5 HOURS OF LIVE PRIMETIME COVERAGE OF SUPER TUESDAY
Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will Anchor Unprecedented Coverage of Coast to Coast Presidential Primaries and Caucuses on Tuesday, February 5th
“Showdown: Coast to Coast” Begins at 8 p.m., ET and Continues Across All Time Zones as Results Become Known
ABC News will broadcast at least five hours of live primetime coverage of the Super Tuesday Presidential Primaries and Caucuses. Coverage will begin on Tuesday, February 5th at 8:00 p.m., ET and continue through at least 1:00 a.m., ET to report results across all time zones including delegate-rich California where polls close at 11:00 p.m., ET.
Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor “Showdown: Coast to Coast” from ABC News headquarters in New York. ABC News political correspondents John Berman, Ron Claiborne, David Muir, Kate Snow, Jake Tapper and David Wright will report throughout the night from key states and candidates’ campaign headquarters. Bianna Golodryga will report from the ABC News/Facebook Desk where she’ll monitor user reaction to Super Tuesday results and key election issues.
“On February 5, more states will have primaries and caucuses on a single day than has ever happened in U.S. history. In giving this historic evening the coverage it deserves, ABC News underscores its ongoing commitment to providing political reporting and analysis more comprehensive and insightful than anyone else can provide,” said ABC News President David Westin.
“Nightline” will air at 11:35 p.m., PT. Terry Moran will anchor this special edition with reports from ABC News correspondents across the February 5th Super Tuesday states.
(Please note: East Coast and Central markets might see an edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live at 12:35 ET if West Coast results are already known.)
ABCNEWS.com will provide wall-to-wall coverage of Super Tuesday, featuring real-time results directly on the Homepage. The site will have live streaming video of victory and concession speeches as well as original stories and updated dispatches from ABC News reporters traveling with the candidates on the campaign trail. ABC News Polling Director Gary Langer will provide exit poll analysis and ABC News Senior Political Reporter Rick Klein will live blog the events of the day.
Sam Donaldson and Laura Marquez will anchor wall-to-wall coverage of Super Tuesday on ABC News NOW. Christianne Klein will report live from the “Results Desk” in New York. News Now will also have college and university students from across the country on the air live reacting to the results in their respective regions.
ABC News Radio will provide extensive coverage of Super Tuesday. Coverage will include live coverage from 8:06 p.m., ET through at least 12:58 a.m., ET (Wednesday); Special Reports as the winners are declared and one-minute status reports six times an hour from 7:00 p.m., ET until 1:00 a.m., ET. On Monday, February 4th Aaron Katersky will host a one-hour Instant Special previewing Super Tuesday at 7:06 p.m., ET.
ABC News Radio Correspondents will report from the campaign trail with the presidential candidates across the nation including: Ann Compton with Senator Hillary Clinton; Alex Stone with Senator Barack Obama; Vic Ratner with Senator John McCain; Jim Hickey with Governor Mitt Romney; and Jim Ryan with Governor Mike Huckabee.
ABC’s Affiliate News Service NewsOne will cover the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses with T.J. Winick reporting the results from Washington, D.C.; Linsey Davis covering the Democrats; and Jeremy Hubbard covering the Republicans from candidate headquarters.