Viewers may have to do a little hunting or channel-surfing if they want to watch tonight’s controversial address to the nation from President Donald Trump.
ABC and NBC will opt to stream Trump’s speech at 9 pm EST on their streaming platforms, rather than carry it live on their networks. ABC says that it will broadcast a special report when the speech concludes.
“ABC News will run President Trump’s speech on ABC News Live and ABC News Radio with comprehensive, anchored coverage,” an ABC News spokesperson says. “We will also cover the speech in our regular network newscasts and, as always, our Special Report team is fully prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur.”
CBS, however, is planning to air a special report at 9 p.m., a spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter. That does not necessarily guarantee that it will carry the whole speech live.
CNN also won’t be carrying the speech live but the cable network is planning coverage around it.
“CNN will cover the President’s speech as a news event, and monitor it for news developments, providing analysis and commentary from CNN experts who cover elections, intelligence and the FBI,” a CNN rep said, adding that a live feed of the speech will be on its website.
A spokesperson for Fox News had not responded to a request for comment, as of this writing.
However, upon the president giving his speech on Thursday night, NBC and ABC affiliates owned by Sinclair broadcast group ran it live. Trump also addressed both networks during his remarks.
“In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don’t like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don’t want to reveal it,” Trump said. “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multibillion dollar in value airways for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”
The decision not to carry the speech live is not actually unusual: Networks usually weight the subject matter and context, and all have in the past declined to run speeches from Presidents Biden, Obama and Bush, among others.
In this case, the subject of the President’s speech is not entirely clear, though he has suggested it will be about “election integrity,” suggesting it could be about once again sowing doubt about 2020 election, which he lost, or perhaps the upcoming midterm elections. Earlier this week there were rumblings that he would declare that Georgia’s Democratic Senators were not legitimately elected.
When President Trump addressed the nation about the Iran war earlier this year, the networks carried it live.
July 16, 5:17 p.m. Updated with responses from CNN and CBS.
July 16, 8:42 p.m. Updated with Trump’s speech remarks, and to reflect NBC and ABC affiliates owned by Sinclair broadcast group ran his speech live.
