Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, November 4th, 2025:
PRODUCTION NOTES
My apologies for the lateness (and shortness) of today's newsletter. I ended up doing a couple of very early morning radio interviews about the Donald Trump/60 Minutes interview, which substantially threw off my morning workflow. I also had an interesting conversation with someone in Norway about the challenges the American media has covering Donald Trump.
SPEAKING OF THAT DONALD TRUMP INTERVIEW ON '60 MINUTES'
My piece from yesterday that showed everything from the full interview that didn't make the cut for air received a lot of attention. There mentions of the piece by everyone from The AP's David Bauder to this nice mention in Brian Stelter's "Reliable Sources" newsletter:
In the interests of self-promotion, I'll mention that this type of coverage is a good reminder of my reporting and if you'd like to support it by buying me a coffee or two, I would appreciate it.
WHAT THE BLANK IS CNN THINKING? OKAY, I PROBABLY KNOW ALREADY...
Tonight is election night, although all of the races are local and other than a few races such as NYC mayor and major statewide races in places like New Jersey and Virginia, most of what is likely to happen involves very niche local battles.
Which means tonight is a good testing ground for media organizations large and small to test new digital presentations and approaches ahead of next year's very important congressional races.
I am going to highlight a few attempts you might want to try out, although I already have a possible winner for the most ill-advised combination of on-air personalities and presentation - the "casual" election coverage from the subscription-based platform CNN All-Access:
During the program, moderator Harry Enten will lead a group that includes provocative radio host Charlamagne Tha God, conservative podcaster and author Ben Shapiro, and technology journalist Kara Swisher, among others. The group won’t sit behind a desk, but rather will hang out on couches and hash out voting returns over food and drink.
Ben Freaking Shapiro? I suppose this qualifies as part of CNN's new "post partisan" approach to political coverage. But I would just as soon as be repeatedly beaten with a 20-pound bag of potatoes than watch election coverage including Ben Shapiro and Charlamagne Tha God, who CNN describes as "provocative." And based on what I've heard from him over the years, that's a very kind way of spinning his approach to the truth. So no, I won't be watching.
I will check out the live coverage tonight from the streaming news channel NBC News Now. Their coverage will be anchored by Kristen Welker and Steve Kornacki and that feels like a pretty solid duo that can provide a nice, apolitical approach to election night coverage. On a related note, Kornacki did an interview with Mediaite about his plans for the coverage:
We’re going big right away, and we’ll be live on NBC News NOW at 7:00 p.m., when the first results from Virginia start pouring in, and going late. It’s our free streaming platform — easy to find and watch. And I’ll be at the board going through counties — and this year, excitingly, municipalities too. (I always tell my bosses I’m ready to go round the clock until we get calls in every race!) We’ve got a great team who will be part of it. So many more people are interested in politics and elections now than earlier in my career, and it’s exciting that we’re going to be providing coverage that meets that interest for this election. We’ll also have a live YouTube stream of NBC’s podcast Here’s the Scoop that I’ll be at the board for, sometime after 11 p.m. Tune in and join us — it’ll be great fun!
Fox News Channel coverage will be limited to a special after the network's primetime programming has wrapped, but both MSNBC and CNN plan on covering election results throughout the evening. With a couple of exceptions, I tend to find MSNBC's anchors less annoying, and capable of providing some real insight into the results. I want to like CNN's coverage, there are certainly some reporters there I think are very talented. But overall, the network seems to believe that constant on-air arguing is non-partisan. And for me, it's mostly just exhausting.
There are a couple of smaller efforts that are worth checking out. Chris Cillizza is teaming up with Chuck Todd and Decision Desk HQ for a YouTube live stream starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. Cillizza and Todd have a good chemistry and they are firmly into old school Beltway political journalism that sometimes feels a bit awkward. But I will likely click in at some point to see how they are doing.
The CBS News digital coverage includes a grab bag of anchors and analysts that seems to be slowly reflecting the political sensibilities of new CBS News head Bari Weiss. The night will be hosted by Major Garrett, but it also includes contributions from The Free Press staff writer Olivia Reingold, who you might know from that trainwreck of a TikTok "spoof" of John Oliver, as well as her piece in which she complained she lost friends and been disinvited from a wedding because of her conservative views.
Let me know what you end up watching tonight and what you thought by emailing me at
ODDS AND SODS
* The Australian government has introduced content quotas on global streamers. The rules requires global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers to spend 10% of their total Australian expenditure – or 7.5% of their revenues – on local originals.
* The true crime documentary The Carman Family Deaths premieres Wednesday, November 19th on Netflix. Here is a first look video look at the documentary and here is the brief official logline: "A dramatic rescue at sea spirals into a murder mystery in this twisty true-crime documentary examining why Nathan Carman, a young man with autism, became a suspect in his mother's mysterious 2016 disappearance and his wealthy grandfather's 2013 homicide."
* Disney+ has partnered Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM to bring up to 60 Tving titles and CJ ENM series, including Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and Reply 1988 to subscribers of Disney+ Japan.
* MGM+ has greenlit The Hillside Strangler, a four-part true-crime docuseries that explores the murders that gripped Los Angeles in the late 1970s.
* Netflix said Monday night that its planned match between ex-YouTuber Jake Paul and pro boxer Gervonta Davis has been canceled. Np reason was given for the move.
* Conservative Laura Loomer as been credentialed as a Pentagon reporter.
* Prime Video is now offering a bundle of MGM+, Starz and AMC+ for $19.99/month, a 31% savings.
* GQ has an interview with Stephen Colbert and he is of course asked about his thoughts on The Late Show being canceled. And he gives a very circumspect and honest answer, which to be honest, is probably the same approach I would take if I were in his shoes:
So people can have their theories. I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation. I have had a great relationship with CBS. It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH:
* All's Fair Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Leanne Morgan: Unspeakable Things (Netflix)
* Love & Hip Hop Miami Season Seven Premiere (BET)
* Ms. Pat Settles It Season Premiere (BET)
* Nevada Wild Series Premiere (Animal Planet)
* Squid Game: The Challenge Season Premiere (Netflix)
* The Curse Of Oak Island Season Premiere (History)
* Who Hired The Hitman? Series Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH:
* Expedition Files Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Expedition Unknown Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Heweliusz (Netflix)
* Just Alice Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Manipulated Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Tournament Of Champions: All-Star Christmas (Food Network)
* Tyler Perry's Finding Joy (Prime Video)
SEE YOU EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING!
