Joe Biden is making his first primetime address to the nation as President of the United States on Thursday, with the remarks set to begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, meaning the broadcast networks will be breaking in to their regularly scheduled lineups to cover it.
Biden has plenty to discuss, with the main topic the one-year anniversary of the Covid pandemic this week. It comes as a massive $1.9 trillion relief package passed by Congress this week heads to his desk for signature, the vehicle for Biden’s major bet that the stimulus will help fuel an economy hobbled by the virus.
Meanwhile, he has accelerated his original goal of having enough vaccines for every American by the end of May, even as the U.S. death toll nears 530,000.
Here’s how the news networks plan to cover the event:
ABC
ABC News will offer special coverage beginning at 8 ET with World News Tonight anchor David Muir leading the team. Earlier this month, Muir took on the task of leading coverage of major special events and breaking news as the network phased out the title of “chief anchor” that had been given to Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos.
CBS
CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell will lead the network’s coverage at 8 ET, joined by Margaret Brennan and Nancy Cordes. It is part of CBS News’ weeklong “The Pandemic: One Year of COVID” series across its programs to mark the anniversary. Streaming service CBSN will also carry the speech live.
Fox News Channel
The network will air Biden’s speech live at 8 ET.
MSNBC
Chris Hayes will host “All In America: The Year We Meet Again” live from the Lincoln Memorial that will include Biden’s address. Hayes will be joined by White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain live on set for a one-on-one interview about the administration’s Covid-19 strategy.
NBC
NBC Nightly News’ Lester Holt and Today‘s Savannah Guthrie will anchor a primetime special report at 8 ET to cover the speech live on NBC and streaming service NBC News Now. The pair return to headline a special Dateline at 10 ET featuring interviews with Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
PBS
PBS NewsHour will offer live coverage at 8 ET with managing editor Judy Woodruff as anchor and contributions from White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor; Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins; and The Atlantic staff writer Alexis Madrigal, co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project.