With the potential to have many Senate, House and
gubernatorial races still hanging in the balance into late night on the East
Coast, NBC News will expand election coverage into late night, pre-empting The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Brian Williams will anchor NBC's coverage on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
He'll be joined by David Gregory, Tom Brokaw, Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt,
Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd and Mark Whitaker.
"This midterm is
shaping up as one for the record books," Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC News VP of
Specials and Digital Media and executive producer of NBC's election coverage,
said in a statement. "It is off the charts by every measure: the number of
races in play; the number of wild-card issues and candidates; and the
political stakes hanging in the balance. We're going to be going late into
the night because that's when the story will fully unfold. We have the most
talented and experienced political team -- and now we'll have this
unprecedented time -- to give our viewers the best possible coverage."
NBC News had previously
planned to continue its originally planned primetime election coverage from
9-11 p.m. ET with a live edition for West Coast markets. Decision 2010
coverage will air from 9-11 p.m., ET with a break for local news and then
continue with coverage from 11:35 p.m., ET- 3:30 am, ET. West Coast viewers
also will get a live election report from 9-11 p.m., PT. NBC News will also
offer its affiliates time throughout the special report to cover local and
state races.
