Midterm elections 2018: When, where, and how to watch results

All the early voting, political ads, polls, and stories have come to this. The midterm elections are here, and here’s how to watch everything unfold.

First off: Have you voted yet? Do you need help finding your polling place? Vote.org has you covered there. Need someone to talk to if something’s not right at your polling place? 866-OUR-VOTE has multiple lines in multiple languages (and the site has some helpful tips). Voting is hugely important in every election, but it seems more important than ever given the past two years since the last national election.

Now that you either have voted or have a plan to vote, let’s get into the real subject here: how to watch the votes unfold live. We know you’ll probably be staring at Twitter or the likes at the same time, but if you can only take one screen’s worth of stress at a time, we’ll help you out by telling you where to watch.

Although MSNBC won’t start early (instead running through its usual slate up until MTP Daily, per TVGuide), other networks will. ABC will kick off at 4:30 p.m Eastern time. Meanwhile, CBS will go live at 5 p.m. Eastern on its own YouTube page. CNN will do the same for free at the same time on its own website and apps.

Primetime coverage starts on NBC, CBS, PBS, and ABC at the same time: 8 p.m. Eastern, which is when polls will start to close in a number of states. Telemundo will kick off at 9 p.m. Eastern. If you’d like to swap between them quickly, a service like Fubo TV, which offers a free seven-day trial, may be helpful. However, while TVGuide shows that NBC, CBS, and ABC will all take breaks come 10 p.m. Eastern, PBS will keep on trucking through the 11 p.m. hour.

However, once the late-night hours roll around, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Late Night with Seth Meyers will all have special live shows, as will The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in the cable sphere. (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee aired a special show Monday night and will be back at its regular time on Wednesday as well.)

If by the time all of those shows have wrapped up, you still want more, your best bets will be MSNBC and CNN, which will be going live straight through until their regular programs start at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. We cannot guarantee that you will stay awake all that time, so if you wake up on the couch on Wednesday morning, that’s on you, and we just want you to be aware of that.

Some good Twitter accounts to follow — if you just can’t resist — include Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, Cook Political Report itself, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, and your paper of choice’s official Twitter account. Beyond that, it’s up to you which Twitter pundits you choose to tap into as the votes are counted and decisions are made.

Naturally, we here at Culturess will also bring you a postmortem of the elections — but until then, go vote.