Some aspects of Friday’s inauguration are about as old as the country itself: The dignified, pre-ceremony meeting at the White House between the outgoing and incoming president. The oath of office administered by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The post-ceremony parade and blur of fancy dress balls.
And some are about as recently minted as yesterday’s social media post: Streaming news coverage for mobile devices. Public television broadcasting on Twitter. Spanish-language coverage on cable and — roll over Martin Van Buren! — live streaming from the White House.
Here’s an Inauguration Day viewing guide (Note: Coverage plans are still developing on some fronts, so keep checking back online for updates):
ON TV:
ABC: Coverage begins at 7 a.m. Friday with a special edition of "Good Morning America" from Washington, followed by continued live coverage until 4 p.m. "ABC World News Tonight" (one-hour edition airs 7 p.m. in Atlanta), "20/20" (10 p.m.) and "Nightline" (12:35 a.m.) also will air special programs from the nation's capital.
CBS: Coverage starts at 7 a.m. with "CBS This Morning" broadcasting live from the National Mall in Washington; "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley will join the morning show and continue to anchor live coverage of inaugural events through 4 p.m. Later, Pelley anchors a special one-hour edition of the evening news at 6:30 p.m. At 8 p.m. Gayle King and John Dickerson anchor a live one-hour special, "Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Donald Trump."
CBSN:CBS' 24/7 streaming news service (www.cbsnews.com/live) will air free live coverage throughout Friday on all major digital platforms.
C-SPAN: Live coverage begins at 7 a.m. and continues throughout the day's events.
CNN: Coverage begins at 5 a.m. with a special edition of "New Day." Live coverage of both Donald Trump's inauguration and President Barack Obama's departure from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by live coverage of the Inaugural Parade from 2 to 4 p.m. Special live editions of all early evening and prime-time shows will air from Washington on Friday night.
Fox Broadcast: Fox News Channel's chief news anchor, Shepard Smith, heads live coverage from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Fox Business Network: Coverage begins with "Mornings with Maria" live from Washington from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Neil Cavuto will anchor coverage of the swearing-in ceremonies, parade and other inaugural events from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. That will be followed by a special two-hour edition of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and, at 8 p.m., "Intelligence Report with Trish Regan" featuring coverage of the inaugural balls.
Fox News: Coverage begins at 5 a.m. with "Fox & Friends" broadcasting live from the National Mall, followed by "America's Newsroom" at 9 a.m. from Lafayette Park. Live inaugural coverage from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by special live editions of "The Five," "Special Report with Bret Baier," "The First 100 Days" and "The O'Reilly Factor" from Washington. Coverage wraps up with special live editions of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" and "Hannity," both originating from the Inaugural Ball.
MSNBC: Coverage begins at 6 a.m. with a special four-hour edition of "Morning Joe" live from The Dubliner pub in Washington. Inaugural coverage begins at 10 a.m. and continues through prime time with live analysis of the day's events and coverage of the various balls.
NBC: Coverage begins at 7 a.m. with "Today" anchored live from Washington by Matt Lauer and "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd. Lester Holt anchors all-day inaugural coverage beginning at 10 a.m., joined by special correspondent Tom Brokaw. A special one-hour edition of "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" will be broadcast live from the nation's capital.
PBS: Live coverage from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. anchored by "PBS NewsHour" managing editor Judy Woodruff. Proving it's not your grandparents' staid public TV, "NewsHour" is teaming with Twitter to live-stream all six hours of its special coverage on Twitter as well.
Telemundo: Eight hours of live coverage beginning at 9 a.m. with "Trump en la Casa Blanca." At 7 p.m., Jose Diaz-Balbart anchors a special, "Los Hispanicos y Trump," which presents the events of the presidential inauguration from the points of view of five Hispanics from different backgrounds.
STREAMING
YouTube will stream the event live on its channels for Bloomberg, CBS, C-SPAN, NBC, Telemundo, Univision and the White House.
Live streams of inauguration coverage also will be available from ABC.com, CBS.com, CNN.com, FoxNews.com, MSNBC.com and NPR.org.
The White House offers a live stream at www.whitehouse.gov/live.
LATE-NIGHT TV
Unlike last summer, when late-night hosts couldn’t wait to do live and/or on-the-scene shows during the Republican and Democratic conventions, these yuksters-in-chief have been slow to commit to doing the same for the inauguration (Here’s the worst-kept secret about this group: Many work four-day weeks, either pre-taping their Friday shows or airing repeats). So far, only “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” has announced plans for a special inauguration show, to air at 11 p.m. Friday.
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