The TV Column

Election coverage takes over the box tonight

After today’s election, one of these characters will be seen much less on Saturday Night Live — Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton.
After today’s election, one of these characters will be seen much less on Saturday Night Live — Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton.

Just in case you missed the memo, there's an election today. It'll be all over the TV tonight.

The coverage begins on broadcast networks at 5:30 p.m. with the nightly news. Name your poison -- David Muir (ABC); Scott Pelley (CBS); or Lester Holt (NBC). Live election coverage begins at 6, well before the polls close in Arkansas (7:30 p.m.) as well as most of the country.

Fox (not to be confused with Fox News) joins the frenzy with You Decide 2016: Election Special from 7 to 9 p.m. And Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will co-anchor PBS' live coverage from 7 to 11 p.m. with PBS NewsHour Election Night 2016: A Special Report.

If you are a political junkie, or maybe just a masochist, the cable news outlets get a running start much earlier and will report every sparrow that falls from the heavens ad nauseum.

CNN will roll out Election Day in America starting at 8 a.m. and run all day and overnight.

Fox News will have its regular correspondents talking politics throughout the day, switching to America's Election Headquarters at 5 p.m.

MSNBC will have a similar schedule all day and into the wee hours.

Which to watch? They'll each have the same results, but conventional wisdom says most folks watch whichever channel reinforces their beliefs. In that case, conservatives will tune in Fox News, liberals will watch MSNBC or any of the others except Fox News.

Let's be serious -- the cable outlets quit pretending to be fair and balanced long ago. Each has carved out a niche and preaches to the choir.

How will the vote go tonight? ABC analyst Jonathan Karl notes most polls have the two candidates virtually tied within the margin of error, but to win 270 electoral college votes, Trump needs to run the table of all the battleground states plus pick off at least one traditional blue Democrat state.

Karl says it's possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and the other to win the electoral college.

Either way, it promises to be an exciting evening. Or rather, a long, drawn out evening staggering, exhausted, into Wednesday.

Colbert comments. Viewers needing a break at 10 p.m. can switch over to Showtime to watch live as The Late Show's Stephen Colbert says things he can't say on broadcast TV.

The hour is rated TV-14 for language and is titled Stephen Colbert's Live Election Night Democracy's Series Finale: Who's Going to Clean Up This S***? The key art for the show has Colbert with a shovel slung over his shoulder.

About the special, Colbert jokes, "It'll be all the political comedy you love from my CBS show, with all the swearing and nudity you love from Showtime."

The program will also feature remote segments and several surprise guests. It's bound to be just as entertaining as George Stephanopoulos or the pundits on all those news channels.

Fuller House. For the loyal fans looking forward to Season 2 of Fuller House on Netflix, there's now a trailer to whet your appetite on YouTube.com.

The series, which follows the next generation of the Tanner-Fuller-Gibbler family, streams worldwide on Dec. 9.

Fuller House stars Candace Cameron Bure as D.J. Tanner-Fuller, Jodie Sweetin as Stephanie Tanner, and Andrea Barber as Kimmy Gibbler.

The adventures include the widowed D.J.'s three boys, Kimmy's teenage daughter, and Kimmy's not so estranged ex-husband Fernando (Juan Pablo Di Pace) all in the childhood home in which D.J. and Stephanie grew up.

Things get cheesy fast. About D.J., Kimmy says, "That poor thing is a Lifetime movie waiting to happen."

In addition, Full House favorites John Stamos, Bob Saget, Lori Loughlin and Dave Coulier all put in appearances. And still, not an Olsen twin in sight. That was probably a wise career move.

Fuller House premiered on Netflix in February to cold and brutal reviews. Hank Stuever in The Washington Post wrote, "There's a point where nostalgia becomes more like necrophilia. Fuller House ... represents a new low in the current culture's inability to leave behind the blankies, binkies and wubbies of one's youth."

I say the series is not quite that bad, it's just silly. If we eliminated everything that was silly on TV, there would be precious little left.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 11/08/2016

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