The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Sets Multiplatform Blitz for Election Night

Looking for some laughs to accompany your existential dread about the results of the 2020 election? There’s a show for that—and it’s being simulcast on seven channels.

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah is going live tonight at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central with an election night special, part of the show’s long-running election coverage dubbed Votegasm 2020. The late-night staple will also simulcast its live, hourlong episode across six other ViacomCBS-owned cable networks: MTV, MTV2, VH1, BET, BET Her and Pop TV. The full episode will also stream live on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The episode will feature interviews with actor Don Cheadle and writer Tressie McMillan Cottom, who will weigh in on election results as they roll in across the country. (Election results may not be finalized Tuesday night, as higher-than-normal mail-in voting, coupled with high voter turnout, is likely to delay results in many crucial states as votes are processed.)

The move to go live reflects a longstanding tradition for the Comedy Central show on the evening of a presidential Election Day. Since 2000, the show has broadcast live to respond in real time to the results. The 2016 special was also simulcast across several Viacom networks: MTV, VH1, TV Land, MTV2 and Spike (which is now Paramount Network). This time, of course, will be different: The Daily Show will be broadcast remotely.

It’ll provide host Trevor Noah and other show contributors, including special correspondent Jordan Klepper, another chance to needle President Donald Trump, which the show has done several times both on air and in advertisements for the talk show. And it will offer a respite for some viewers from the anticipated barrage of TV news networks’ coverage of the election results and any developments over the course of the evening.

The Daily Show isn’t the only late night show going live following Election Day—it’s not even the only late-night program on ViacomCBS that will be doing a live telecast. On Showtime, CBS late night host Stephen Colbert will cover the election results on Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020. That show, which also begins at 11 p.m., is a reprisal of Colbert’s memorable coverage of the unexpected results of the 2016 election.