Late Night Shows Won’t Go Live on Election Night for First Time in 24 Years

Skip to content “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will tape its episode on Tuesday, but will only include early reactions to results coming in from the East Coast October 30, 2026 @ 10:16 AM Jimmy Kimmel gives his monologue for the Oct. 29 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (Photo credit: ABC) Late night television will be taking a backseat for this year’s midterm elections. Since 2002, late night programs have shifted their taping schedules to go live with audiences as election results come in. Jon Stewart took “The Daily Show” live 24 years ago, covering that year’s midterm returns. Two decades later, however, NBC will not air “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” or “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Nov. 3, instead preempting them with live news coverage of the midterm results. ABC will still air a new episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” But according to LateNighter, the late night program will tape later than usual on Tuesday to react to some of the early results from the East Coast — meaning it will not air live on the West Coast with the final outcomes. “The Daily Show” will air a new episode Tuesday on Comedy Central, but it will likely tape before the polls close in New York (Stephen Colbert also used to cover the midterms live on his show, before CBS ended “The Late Show” earlier this year). Last midterms in 2022, only Colbert and Kimmel broadcast live shows on election night. During Trump’s first term in November 2018, Trevor Noah‘s “Daily Show,” Colbert, Kimmel and Meyers all covered the first midterm election. This shift away from late night coverage comes in a particularly consequential election cycle. The Republican party has control of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but this midterm season has the potential to flip them as Trump goes into the second half of his second term as president. Instead, the networks are opting for traditional news coverage as opposed to satirical takes on the election cycle.