MSNBC, 6:00 p.m. ET
You can, and will, watch your personal favorite news outlet as you monitor tonight’s election results. As a TV critic, I usually make it a point to bounce around, and compare and contrast, and I’ll be doing some of that tonight. But the news network that has earned default position, for me, is MSNBC, where the conversational byplay between host Brian Williams and the all-star panel of Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and Nicolle Wallace is matchless and helpfully informative, as are Steve Kornacki’s maps and breakdowns (political, not emotional).
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
We’re getting near the end of this mammoth salute to female filmmakers. Tonight is installment ten of the Women Make Film documentary series, and the chapters of female film focus this week are genre-related: “Melodrama,” “Sci Fi” and “Horror and Hell.” The first segment, “Melodrama,” allows a close look at actress and writer-director Ida Lupino, whose bold (and boldly photographed) 1950 drama Outrage follows the documentary tonight at 9:15 p.m. ET. It stars Mala Powers (pictured) as a woman who becomes engaged to be married – then has her future altered dramatically after she’s attacked, and raped, on her way home from work.
Comedy Central, 11:00 p.m. ET
LIVE SPECIAL: Jon Stewart, in his glory days, pioneered the importance of Comedy Central as a place to check in with on election night (and convention nights, and pretty much any night). Trevor Noah has been upholding and extending that tradition, even in a pandemic, and his interview earlier this year with Dr. Anthony Fauci was newsworthy, informative and inspirational – as well as very, very funny. He’s earned your trust, and the right to be listened to. I’m talking, of course, about Fauci… but that goes for Noah, too.
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET
LIVE SPECIAL: Four years ago, Stephen Colbert hosted a live election special on Showtime – a night that didn’t go as most people anticipated. Colbert ad-libbed a lengthy, thoughtful monologue about how our nation got so frighteningly divided, and so dividedly frightened, while his studio audience openly wept. But this year, four years later, things will be very, very different. Because of the pandemic, there is no studio audience. And I hope that’s not the only change…