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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Esther Addley

Broadcasting’s big guns get ready for election night battle

Jeremy Vine, Mishal Husain, David Dimbleby and Emily Maitlis.
BBC1’s election night coverage line-up (L to R): Jeremy Vine, Mishal Husain, David Dimbleby and Emily Maitlis. Photograph: BBC

BBC One

Anchored by – yep, him again – David Dimbleby, the BBC’s coverage kicks off at 9.55pm, just in time to catch the exit polling at 10pm, the first really reliable indicator of how Britain has voted. He’ll be joined by Mishal Husain, Emily Maitlis and a host of talking heads to fill the hours. Featuring “god of polling” (their words) John Curtice on how the numbers crunch and Jeremy Vine on no doubt slightly mad graphics. Huw Edwards picks up the baton at 7am.

ITV

Tom Bradby is at the helm from 9.55pm, though ITV is particularly chuffed to have bagged “the two political analysts everyone else wants” – former chancellor George Osborne and ex-shadow chancellor turned Strictly star Ed Balls – to join its lineup. Robert Peston, Allegra Stratton and a clutch of psephologists join the party, with Nina Hossain “watching for developing trends online”, which we suspect plenty of viewers may be doing already.

Sky News

Adam Boulton and Sophy Ridge co-host Vote17, kicking off at 9pm, with Kay Burley at Theresa May’s Maidenhead constituency, Colin Brazier following Jeremy Corbyn and Anna Botting on the trail of Tim Farron. Sky cameras will be live at an “unprecedented” 300 constituencies, the broadcaster boasts, so if watching little pieces of paper being piled up on tables is your thing, you know where to turn.

Channel 4

Jeremy Paxman is your host for the broadcaster’s Alternative Election Night from 9pm, with David Mitchell and Richard Osman on hand to supply the jokes. Expect election-themed instalments of 8 Out of 10 Cats and some detailed psephological analysis from the cast of Gogglebox, though happily Gary Gibbon, Cathy Newman and the Channel 4 News team can also assist with that.

How to watch if you’re outside the UK

BBC World will be simulcasting the entire night’s Dimbleby-anchored coverage from 8.55pm GMT.

BBC Radio 4, hosted by Carolyn Quinn and James Naughtie and available online globally, is broadcasting througout the night. Stephen Nolan and Emma Barnett do the same on BBC Radio 5 Live.

CNN International

Hala Gorani and Richard Quest host rolling coverage from 10pm, with Christiane Amanpour and Robin Oakley at Westminster and Erin McLaughlin in Brussels “to look at how the vote might affect Brexit negotiations” (remember them?).

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