President Donald Trump is taking to primetime tomorrow, April 1, to address the nation about the war in Iran. Scheduled for 9 PM ET, his remarks will be carried live by all four major broadcast networks, causing a major disruption in the networks’ schedules which are stacked with all-new programming Wednesday night. With just 24 hours heads-up, the broadcasters on Tuesday night scrambled to make accommodations.
For East Coast viewers, the address will interrupt the two-hour season finale of Fox’s The Masked Singer and CBS’ special two-hour episode of Survivor, which are both slated for 8 PM – 10 PM, as well as new episodes of NBC drama Chicago Fire and ABC game show The Greatest Average American at 9 PM.
The Masked Singer and Survivor will both be paused at 9 PM ET to switch to Trump’s address, which is scheduled to run for 20 minutes. Once it ends, the reality competition shows will pick up where they left off and complete their episodes at 10:20 PM ET, with The Masked Singer crowing a winner.
At that time, Fox will go to local news. CBS will air an all-new America’s Culinary Cup (originally scheduled for 10 PM) from 10:20 PM – 11:20 PM ET before the local newscasts start.
At NBC, a new Chicago Med will air from 8 PM – 9 PM ET as scheduled. Chicago Fire will start at 9:20 PM ET, after the Presidential address, followed by a Chicago P.D. original at 10:20 PM, leading to local news at 11:20 PM.
CBS and NBC’s late night also will slide, with The Late Show and The Tonight Show, both in originals this week, starting at 11:50 PM ET.
There will be no primetime or latenight interruption on the West Coast where Trump’s address will air at 6 PM PT.
Due to the coverage of the address, ABC has opted to replace the original episodes of unscripted series The Greatest Average American at 9 PM and Shark Tank at 10:01 PT tomorrow night with repeats on both coasts. in the East, Trump’s speech will preempt the Greatest Average American rerun, with the network joining the episode in progress once the special news coverage is over at 9:20 PM ET. The Shark Tank encore will start at 10:01 PT ET, keeping local news and Jimmy Kimmel Live (in reruns this week) on schedule across the country.