How to Watch the Presidential Election -- On TV and Online

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Our long national nightmare is nearly over (or just beginning, depending on your perspective). After a seemingly endless campaign season, the next president of the United States will be elected on Tuesday. Will it be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

The outcome's still up in the air, but one thing's certain: There's no shortage of options for you to monitor the Election Night results as they come in, from the comfort of your own living room. Based on ratings for the three presidential debates, some analysts are expecting this year's Election Night coverage to be the most-watched ever and break the current record of 71.5 million people who tuned in to see President Obama beat Sen. John McCain in 2008.

All of the major networks will be offering prime time coverage both on TV and online -- and yes, that means regular Tuesday night programming, including NCIS, Bull, This Is Us, Chicago Fire, are all off this week.

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NBC is turning Rockefeller Center into "Democracy Plaza," which will be illuminated in red, white and blue, with the famous Rockefeller Center ice skating rink being repurposed into an electoral college map. ABC News will be offering coverage on television as well as through Facebook Live. And CBS' digital counterpart CBSN will be offering all-day coverage on Tuesday in the player at the top of this article.

In addition to the broadcast networks, an abundance of cable networks will be providing coverage on TV and online as well. Those include, but are not limited to, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, CNBC and C-SPAN.

Special programming includes The View Live Election Special, a viewing party featuring the hosts of The View and live reports from Times Square, which will air on Lifetime beginning at 9 p.m. Viceland is also offering a live Election Night edition of its comedy show Desus & Mero.

In terms of late night, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will air a live Election Night episode at 11/10c, which will be broadcast on Comedy Central, VH1, MTV and Spike. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be preempted by news coverage on CBS, but is airing a special live show on Showtime instead. Other late-night shows, including The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Seth Meyers, will take the night off and return on Wednesday.

(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)