The Stop the Steal protest rally in Washington over President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss turned extremely ugly this afternoon, as hundreds of Pro-Trump rioters stormed the United States Capitol, where members of Congress were congregating to certify President-elect Joe Biden‘s election win.
The television news networks have been covering these events throughout the afternoon and into the early evening, and the broadcast networks will go with live coverage of the U.S. Capitol riots an resumption of the electoral college vote counting in prime time, preempting their respective regularly scheduled Wednesday night slates.
ABC moved away from news at 7 p.m. ET to air Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, but at 8 p.m. ET, chief anchor George Stephanopoulos will lead three-hour-long prime time coverage joined by World News Tonight anchor David Muir, ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis and ABC News’ political team. ABC News had provided coverage of today’s events from 2:26 p.m. ET up until 7 p.m. ET.
Nightline will present one-hour special edition at 12:06 a.m. ET anchored by Co-anchors Byron Pitts and Juju Chang.
ABC News Live, the network’s streaming news channel, will carry World News Tonight with David Muir at 6:30 p.m. ET and continue breaking news coverage from 7-8 p.m.. ET anchored by Davis and World News Tonight Weekend anchor and chief national affairs correspondent Tom Llamas. ABC News Live will also carry the network’s primetime special.
NBC has been non-stop with live news coverage since 1 p.m. ET, when the electoral vote counting coverage started. NBC News’ Lester Holt anchored until 4:30 p.m. ET, and then signed off to get ready for Nightly News. Savannah Guthrie anchored coverage until Holt returned at 6:30 p.m. ET.
As the case with ABC, NBC is staying on live news coverage throughout prime time. Holt and Guthrie co-anchor through 11 p.m. In the Mountain and Pacific time zones, encores of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. will air in their respective timeslots.
CBS has stuck with live news coverage of the riots for most of the day, and will continue with live news coverage through prime time. Specifics are TBD and will be added when we learn more, but CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell will indeed lead coverage until 11 p.m. ET.
For Fox News, Bill Hemmer anchored breaking news of the rioting on the U.S. Capitol during his 3 p.m. hour through 6 p.m. ET, when Bret Baier then took over with a special edition of Special Report.
Chris Wallace, Dana Perino, Martha MacCallum, Juan Williams, Karl Rove and Andy McCarthy have been contributing throughout the afternoon, along with on the ground reporting from Congressional correspondent Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill and Washington correspondent Griff Jenkins and Mike Tobin outside the Capitol.
Chief congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel joins Pergram this evening on Capitol Hill as the counting resumes. Washington correspondent Kevin Corke, and State Department correspondent Rich Edison are also reporting from the ground in D.C. Wednesday evening.
Fox is moving to regularly scheduled opinion programming in prime time, before Shannon Bream takes over at 11 p.m. ET with a special two-hour edition of Fox News @ Night (11 p.m.-1 a.m. ET), followed by overnight coverage helmed by Jon Scott and Gillian Turner.
Telemundo’s live coverage has been anchored by Jose Diaz-Balart and Felicidad Aveleyra throughout the afternoon and into the evening.. senior Washington correspondent Cristina Londono reported live throughout the day from inside the Capitol with other correspondents reporting from outside.
The network’s live coverage will continue until 9 p.m. (although may be extended if events merit), and its coverage is also streaming live on the Noticias Telemundo website and social platforms.