The big four broadcast networks will produce special reports tonight for Pres. Trump’s announcement of his Supreme Court nominee at 8 p.m. ET. Lester Holt anchors on NBC, George Stephanopoulos on ABC, Scott Pelley on CBS and Shepard Smith on Fox. The three evening newscasts will also need to update their newscasts for the West Coast.
The broadcast networks will push back their Eastern and Central time zone prime time programming to accommodate the announcement, that includes CBS’s NCIS which, with 18.7 million viewers, is the most-watched drama on TV this season. CBS will preempt NCIS and will instead air a rerun of Kevin Can Wait at 8:30 ET.
The cable news networks will, of course, carry the announcement. Among them, Fox News’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will join Bill O’Reilly at 8 p.m. Baier will then host a new hour of Special Report at 11 p.m.
Pres. Obama announced his three Supreme Court selections during the day. On May 26, 2009 Sonia Sotomayor was nominated in an East Room ceremony at 10:15 a.m.; on the morning of May 10, 2010 Pres. Obama nominated Elena Kagan; and last March Obama had a morning Rose Garden announcement for Merrick Garland, whose nomination the Senate never took up.