How To Watch Tonight’s Democratic National Convention Online & On TV
UPDATED with Thursday details: The 2020 Democratic National Convention wraps four days of virtual party meetings, events and speeches Thursday night, when Joe Biden will formally accept the party’s presidential nomination in primetime.
The coronavirus pandemic scuttled plans for the usually in-person conventions for both Dems and Republicans (the latter have their convention next week); the election is November 3. In its place on the Dems’ side were a week of morning and afternoon meetings followed by a primetime block from 9-11 p.m. ET each night that features marquee speeches (like Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders on Night 1; former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, on Night 2) and musical performances including from Billie Eilish, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.
Harris and former President Barack Obama fueled Wednesday night’s program, with Harris accepting the VP nomination to make history as the first woman of color to do so. Tonight’s primetime will be hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and feature speeches from ex-Dem POTUS candidates Sen. Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang among others before Biden takes the stage, culminating his five-decade political career by accepting the party’s formal presidential nomination.
See the convention’s full schedule of events below.
Broadcast news networks ABC, CBS and NBC are providing one hour of coverage of the primetime segments each night. On Wednesday, an estimated 21.4 million watched during the 10 PM ET hour across six networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN), a boost from the 18.6 million who watched Tuesday and the 18.7 million Monday.
There are myriad other ways to tune in to the quadrennial event. You can also follow the official livestream at the official convention site (demconvention.com/watch) or watch Tuesday’s events live on Deadline here:
Here are other ways to watch:
Official social channels:
YouTube.com/demconvention
Facebook.com/demconvention
Twitter.com/demconvention
Twitch.tv/demconvention
Streaming
Download the official 2020 Democratic National Convention app, or search for “DNC” on Amazon Prime Video. The events will also be available via Apple TV, Roku and Xumo TV, and Hulu is continuing its partnership with ABC News Live for live coverage regardless of subscription plan.
Other providers
AT&T Uverse (Channel 212/1212 in SD/HD)
AT&T DirectTV (Channel 201)
Comcast Xfinity Flex (say “DNC” into your Xfinity Voice Remote)
Comcast X1 (say “DNC” into your Xfinity Voice Remote)
Here’s the convention’s primetime schedule, with approximate speaker times and musical performances. (See the full-day schedules here). Below that is the coverage plans for the broadcast and cable networks.
Monday, August 17 (Day 1)
Host: Eva Longoria
9 PM hour: Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, Convention chairman Bennie Thompson, Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore, Alabama Sen. Doug Jones
Performers: Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges
10 PM hour: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former First Lady Michelle Obama
Tuesday, August 18 (Day 2)
Host: Tracee Ellis Ross
9 PM hour: Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), former Secretary of State John Kerry, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, former President Bill Clinton, Democratic chairman Tom Perez, former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, activist Ady Barkan, Delegate roll call
Performer: John Legend
10 PM hour: Dr. Jill Biden
Wednesday, August 19 (Day 3)
Host: Kerry Washington
9 PM hour: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Performers: Billie Eilish, Jennifer Hudson, Prince Royce
10 PM hour: California Sen. Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama
Thursday, August 20 (Day 4)
Host: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
9 PM hour: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former South Bend (IN) Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, author/historian Jon Meacham, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla & Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson
Performers: The Chicks, John Legend & Common
10 PM hour: Former Vice President Joe Biden
Biden’s speech will be followed by a virtual after-party on the DNC’s official platforms hosted by Andy Cohen and headlined by DJ Diplo. Participants include Alyssa Milano, Aubrey Plaza, Cat and Nicole Ehrlich Cora, Jaime Camil, Jason George, Elena Delle Donne, Keith Powell, Liza Koshy, Neil Casey, Michelle Kwan and Zooey Deschanel.
Here’s this week’s coverage plan by network:
ABC
ABC News will air one hour of primetime coverage on the broadcast network from 10-11 p.m. ET led by chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, along with World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis. It will feature more extensive coverage on its ABC News Live streaming site, where coverage will begin at 7 p.m. each night and run until 11 p.m. ET. Davis will start at 7 p.m. ET on ABC News Live, and Stephanopoulos and the team will lead starting at 9 p.m. ET.
CBS
Norah O’Donnell will lead coverage from Washington, joined by John Dickerson and contributors María Elena Salinas, Jamal Simmons and Leslie Sanchez. The network’s streaming channel CBSN will provide coverage each night starting at 5 p.m ET, with Red & Blue anchored by Elaine Quijano; she will continue coverage at 8:30 p.m. ET. CBSNews.com will provide live blog coverage starting each day at 5 p.m. ET, CBS News Radio and affiliate service CBS Newspath will also provide updates.
CNN
Coverage will run from 8 p.m. ET-2 a.m. PT for all four days hosted by Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash and John King. Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon join from midnight-2 a.m. ET. David Chalian, Gloria Borger, David Axelrod, Nia Malika Henderson, Abby Phillip and Mark Preston will provide analysis, while commentators include Van Jones, Jennifer Granholm, Andrew Yang and Scott Jennings joining from CNN’s Election Center in Washington. Two podcasts will debut from CNN Audio during the first week of the conventions: CNN Political Briefing premiering today featuring a new 5-minute daily politics brief hosted by Chalian, and Politically Sound premiering Friday hosted by Chalian and Henderson.
C-Span
The cable network will provide coverage on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org and carried live by C-SPAN Radio and the C-SPAN Radio app. Each individual speech will be independently viewed and shared via the video library on C-SPAN.org. Senior Political Editor Steve Scully, who has covered every convention for C-SPAN since 1992 and attended every convention since 1980, will host a nightly recap show.
Fox News
Special Report’s Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum will co-anchor Democracy 2020 at 10 p.m. ET, joined by Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, Dana Perino and Juan Williams, along with Fox News’ team of correspondents. Donna Brazile, Karl Rove and Katie Pavlich will also offer analysis. The Ingraham Angle will move to 11 p.m. ET during the week, followed by FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream. Bill Hemmer will anchor live coverage for Fox’s O&O stations and broadcast affiliates. Fox News Radio will provide coverage led national correspondent Jared Halpern and political analyst Josh Kraushaar, and Fox News Audio will feature reports and analysis on via podcasts.
NBC & MSNBC
The broadcast network will air an hour in primetime each evening, with cable sibling MSNBC planning for seven hours each night. Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie will anchor from the network’s headquarters in New York starting at 10 p.m. ET, with Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell. MSNBC live coverage from 7 p.m.-2 a.m. ET includes capped by Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace hosting primetime coverage from New York. NBC News Now will feature special coverage starting at 8 p.m. ET, with Todd anchoring. Additional coverage will be available on the pop-up channel on Peacock and The Report on Quibi.
PBS
Special coverage from PBS NewsHour on stations nationwide will air from 8-11 p.m. ET and on the show’s digital platforms which will include the full convention feed. Managing editor Judy Woodruff will anchor coverage with senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz, correspondent Lisa Desjardins and White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. Guests include Cook Political Report national editor Amy Walter, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnists Jonathan Capehart and Gary Abernathy, Washington Post national political reporter and moderator of PBS’s Washington Week Robert Costa, American Greatness editor Chris Buskirk and former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.
Telemundo
Noticias Telemundo’s coverage includes daily special reports, a primetime news special Thursday and live updates across all its digital news platforms including the Noticias Telemundo mobile app and NoticiasTelemundo.com, which will provide live Spanish-language broadcasts each night from 9-11 p.m. ET. José Díaz-Balart and Julio Vaqueiro are anchors, joined by senior Washington correspondent Cristina Londoño and national correspondents Javier Vega and Ruben Pereida. On Thursday at 9:54 p.m. ET, Díaz-Balart will anchor a one-hour primetime news special, Decision 2020: La Noche de Biden, with live coverage and analysis of Joe Biden’s speech.
Univision
Univision News will air and livestream the candidates’ speeches in primetime, including Biden’s speech Thursday in a primetime special, Destino 2020, from 10-11 p.m. ET. The Spanish-language network’s UnivisionNoticias.com and all of its digital platforms will livestream Politiqueando from 8:30-9 p.m. ET a daily, with the commentary programming offering analysis and commentary around the important political news before the main speeches of the day., followed at 9 p.m. with the convention’s full schedule and Spanish translation of the main speech of the day. Follow on social via @UniNoticias on Twitter and Instagram, @UniPolitica on Twitter, and Univision Noticias and Univision Política on Facebook. You can also watch the coverage on the Univision Noticias YouTube page.
