CBS outlines election coverage plans

CBS News and Stations will deliver comprehensive coverage and analysis of the results of the 2024 presidential election starting on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, across all broadcasts and platforms.

Primetime election night coverage on CBS and CBS News 24/7 will begin at 7 p.m. eastern, anchored by Norah O’Donnell from CBS News’ election headquarters in New York City.

O’Donnell will be joined at the anchor desk by CBS News’ expert team, including Margaret Brennan, John Dickerson, Gayle King, Cecilia Vega, Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe.

Throughout the night, Nancy Cordes and contributor Ed Gordon will report from the Harris-Walz election night headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Tony Dokoupil and Caitlin Huey-Burns will report from the Trump-Vance election night headquarters in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The CBS News Data Desk, led by executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto along with Major Garrett, will make projections and characterize races in real-time throughout the night. The Data Desk will provide viewers with in-depth explanations of CBS News’ methodology, exit poll data and how the Network calls races on election night.

Maurice DuBois will report on the “Paths to 270” for each presidential candidate throughout the night. Scott MacFarlane will report in-studio on the battle for control of the U.S. Senate and House.

Bill Whitaker and election law contributor David Becker will lead the CBS News Democracy Desk covering election integrity and potential efforts by foreign and domestic actors to disenfranchise voters and interfere in the 2024 election.

They will be joined by Nicole Sganga and CBS News contributors Chris Krebs, Andrew Boyd and Samantha Vinograd from CBS News’ Washington bureau.

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Jan Crawford will report from Washington on lawsuits and potential challenges to the election.

Journalists with CBS News Confirmed, the Network’s dedicated fact-checking unit, will provide verifications and fact checks to the Democracy Desk team throughout the night.

CBS News and Stations will also deploy journalists from its newsrooms and stations across the country to report for the Democracy Desk and our Democracy Watch team.

CBS News correspondents will be on the ground in each of the seven battleground states CBS News has identified as being most likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election: Jericka Duncan (Michigan), Weijia Jiang (Pennsylvania), Kris Van Cleave (Arizona), Nikole Killion (Georgia), Janet Shamlian (Wisconsin), Lilia Luciano (Nevada) and Skyler Henry (North Carolina). Contributor Ed Gordon will report from the Harris-Walz election night headquarters, and contributors Leslie Sanchez and Joel Payne will offer analysis from the Washington bureau.

CBS Stations will cover the election live across its 14 owned markets, including key battleground states Michigan and Pennsylvania.

CBS Stations will also debut augmented and virtual reality presidential election centers live from its New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco technology-driven studios.

CBS News and Stations’ election night coverage will stream everywhere CBS News 24/7 is distributed, including the CBS News app, Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

Beginning Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, through election day, the “60 Minutes” streaming channel will feature special 24/7 election coverage, including this season’s episodes, as well as special episodes highlighting the candidates and issues facing voters.

The CBS News 24/7 streaming network will offer election day coverage beginning at 4 p.m., anchored by Vladimir Duthiers, O’Keefe and Lindsey Reiser.

“CBS Evening News” will broadcast from CBS News’ election headquarters in New York City on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, through Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

“CBS Mornings” will continue coverage from CBS News’ election headquarters at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

King, Nate Burleson and Duthiers in New York and Dokoupil in Florida will have the latest election returns with additional special reporting from correspondents in the battleground states.

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CBS-owned stations will keep their local streaming channels in sustained live coverage from the evening hours onward, featuring a mix of local and network simulcasts and CBS News 24/7-produced coverage. The streaming channels will simulcast CBS News 24/7’s programming overnight.

CBSNews.com will feature multiple live blogs, articles and explainers on election night covering the presidential election, the battle for control of the house and senate, the seven battleground states, exit poll analysis and fact checking.

The team will publish reporting on key races and ballot measures to watch around the country and a map with real-time updates on the presidential contest results. Across all social media platforms, CBS News will make projections in the presidential contest, all U.S. Senate races, and key U.S. House and gubernatorial races.

CBS News Radio’s anchored coverage begins at 8 p.m. eastern on Tuesday, Nov. 5 and goes through 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Steve Kathan leads the coverage from New York with Linda Kenyon, Michael Toscano and Christopher Cruise in Washington, along with Jim Krasula (North Carolina), Bruce Marcus (Wisconsin) and Stephan Kaufman (Arizona) monitoring key races across the country. Political analyst Amy Dacey and contributor Peter Maer will deliver additional context throughout the night. Listeners will hear from partner stations in critical battleground states, including those with key down-ballot races.

CBS Newspath is delivering coverage to over 220 stations and affiliates via correspondents Jarred Hill, Natalie Brand and Cristian Benavides who are reporting from Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, respectively. On election day, Brand will report from the Harris/Walz election night headquarters with Bradley Blackburn reporting from the Trump-Vance election night headquarters.

Plus, CBS News’ election night live broadcast will also feature audio description. Audio description provides audio-narrated descriptions of a program’s key visual elements and allows viewers who are blind and low vision to participate in what is happening on screen. The live audio description will be provided on the Secondary Audio Programming channel by Descriptive Video Works.

Live audio description will only be available on the CBS Television Network feed and on CBS affiliates equipped for the service. CBS has provided audio description since April 1, 2002.