How are you spending election night? Sitting on the edge of your sofa, tipple of choice at the ready, a cushion on hand to hide behind in those fateful few seconds before the exit poll is released? Us too. Couch potatoes unite – here’s your go-to guide to all the main TV channels’ election coverage.
BBC election coverage
Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie will be co-hosting the BBC ’s election night coverage live on BBC News, BBC One (for viewers in England) and BBC Two (for those in Wales and Northern Ireland). They’ll be joined by the broadcaster’s political editor Chris Mason and Reeta Chakrabarti in the studio, along with several of their colleagues around the country – including Jeremy Vine and the famous Swingometer reporting from Cardiff, Kirsty Wark in Glasgow and Andrea Catherwood from Belfast.
Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, Victoria Derbyshire, Fiona Bruce, Nick Watt, and Alex Forsyth will also be appearing on screen throughout the night as they report in live from key battlegrounds around the country, while the indefatigable Professor John Curtice will be providing on-the-spot analysis and insight during the programming.
On Friday morning, Sophie Raworth and Jon Kay will take over from the night team, joined by deputy political editor Vicki Young as the results continue to roll in.
It marks a huge shake-up to the BBC’s coverage, as for the first time in nearly 40 years the programme will be hosted by two presenters instead of just one. Laura, 47, will also be the Beeb’s first female election night anchor, and notable for his absence will be Huw Edwards, who hosted the 2019 election by himself. Edwards, 62, left the broadcaster in April on medical advice from his doctors, after reports last year alleging he had paid a young person thousands of pounds for explicit sexual images.
Prior to 2019, veteran newsreader David Dimbleby had hosted every election night single-handedly for nearly 40 years.
ITV
Tom Bradby will be anchoring ITV ’s live coverage – his fourth election gig. The 57-year-old News at 10 presenter will be joined by ex-Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon in the studio, along with George Osborne and Ed Balls – hosts of the Political Currency podcast.
Robert Peston, Anushka Asthana and Paul Brand will be regularly popping up with their insight, joined by psephologists Professor Jane Green and Professor Colin Rallings. And there’ll be a host of ITV newsreaders stationed around the nation reporting live from their local patches.
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The live coverage will roll through to Friday, when at 6am Good Morning Britain star Susanna Reid will join colleague Ed for a special edition of the show, along with the Mirror’s very own Kevin Maguire, journalist Andrew Pierce, Labour veterans Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown, and Boris Johnson ’s ex-comms guru Guto Harri. And there’ll be a special guest in the form of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng – he of the infamous 2022 ‘KamiKwasi’ mini Budget that crashed the pound and sent the markets into turmoil.
After GMB, election debate host Julie Etchingham will take over the live coverage as constituencies continue to send in their results, with a team of ITV political correspondents placed in Westminster and Downing Street to share their findings.
Channel 4
Krishnan Guru-Murthy and former Newsnight host Emily Maitlis will be jointly presenting Channel 4 ’s election offering in a line-up that was announced months before Rishi Sunak soggily revealed the date of the general election. The pair – who also work on The News Agents podcast together – will be joined by The Rest is Politics podcasters Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, and we’ve been promised “some familiar faces from Gogglebox” appearing throughout the night to give their take on the results.
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Cathy Newman will be broadcasting live from inside both Labour and the Conservatives’ HQs – which no doubt will have very different vibes – while C4 News political ed Gary Gibbon will be giving analysis.
The broadcaster has already had to change its election plans after losing Clare Balding to the BBC for its Wimbledon coverage. Louisa Compton, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, joked: “Even superwoman Clare Balding can’t be in two places at once…”
Sky News
Stalwart presenter Kay Burley will host Sky News’ Election Night Live, joined by political editor Beth Rigby, who moderated the bruising audience Q&A with Keir Starmer and Sunak earlier this month from Grimsby. This time they’ll be live in the west London studio, and Kay will be celebrating her 12th general election – her first was Margaret Thatcher’s triumph in 1979. Expect graphics galore as Sky pulls out all the stops in its ‘360-degree immersive studio’.
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Joining them will be Sunday show presenter Sir Trevor Phillips and Sky’s data and economics editor Ed Conway giving analysis and showing the latest predictions via the medium of – you guessed it – 3D graphics. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will also be on hand with ex-leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson for their insights into the rolling coverage. And Professor Michael Thrasher will be wheeled out to head up Sky’s psephology team, as he has for the past 35 years.
The team will hand over to Sophy Ridge, Sam Coates and Adam Boulton at 7am on Friday, live from Westminster.