ABC and NBC won’t air Trump’s speech on broadcast TV tonight
President Trump’s primetime address airs at 9 p.m. ET. ABC and NBC will carry it on streaming only, not their broadcast networks. CBS and Fox haven’t said. Here’s exactly what each network committed to, why the FCC makes this fraught, and the 2022 precedent almost nobody is mentioning.
President Donald Trump is delivering a primetime address to the nation tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Two of the three major broadcast networks have decided not to put it on television.
ABC News, owned by Disney, and NBC News will both carry the speech on their streaming services instead. CBS and Fox hadn’t announced plans as of Thursday afternoon.
Here’s what’s actually been said, by whom, and the context that’s missing from most of the coverage.
What ABC actually committed to
ABC’s statement is more specific than the headlines suggest. The network will carry the address live on ABC News Live, its free 24/7 streaming channel, and on ABC News Radio, with what it described as “comprehensive, anchored coverage,” plus coverage “in our regular network newscasts.”
It also said it is “prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur.”
So the speech will be available live, on a free ABC platform, with ABC anchors. What it won’t do is preempt the primetime schedule on the broadcast channel.
What NBC and the others are doing
NBC News made effectively the same call. It will carry the remarks live on NBC News NOW, its free streaming service, and follow with “a special report” on the NBC broadcast network after the speech ends.
CBS News had not revealed its coverage plans as of Thursday afternoon. Neither had Fox.
The address will also stream on the White House’s own social media channels and on The Daily Wire.
Why the FCC makes this different
Here’s the part that raises the stakes well beyond a scheduling decision.
Broadcasters hold licenses regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC under this administration has been unusually active toward the networks. Reuters framed the decision as “risking the ire of an administration that has placed unprecedented pressure on American media.”
There’s a live item on the calendar, too. An August 6 FCC vote could loosen local TV ownership rules, a decision with real money attached for every broadcaster and one that may trigger a legal fight over the agency’s own authority.
Axios summarized the bind directly: the networks must choose between airing contested claims about the 2020 election or risking “backlash from the White House and a confrontational Federal Communications Commission.”
Legally, the networks are on solid ground. Experts note broadcasters have broad First Amendment rights to decide what they air, and no obligation to hand over airtime on request. The counterweight is custom rather than law: networks have historically carried most presidential addresses on the theory that they carry information of public importance.
The 2022 precedent nobody’s mentioning
This is the fact that reframes the entire story, and it’s getting almost no airtime in the coverage.
In 2022, ABC, CBS, and NBC all declined to broadcast a primetime address by President Joe Biden on threats to democracy, a speech that sharply criticized Trump and those who denied the 2020 results.
The stated reasoning then will sound familiar. Critics viewed Biden’s address as a partisan speech designed to help Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms, rather than an urgent update to the nation.
Same networks. Same objection. Different president.
And it goes back further. Per Deadline, the networks “do not always carry a presidential primetime speech upon White House request, as decisions were made to bypass Joe Biden and Barack Obama addresses as well.”
Whatever you conclude about tonight, “networks decline a president’s primetime request” is not a new event, and it has not historically broken along party lines.
What the speech is reportedly about
Trump promised “really big news” and has signaled the address will focus on “free and fair elections.”
According to reporting from MS NOW, which broke the subject matter, the president plans to discuss voting machine security and announce declassified intelligence the White House says shows other countries planned to interfere in the 2020 election.
Those claims have not been made public or independently verified, which is precisely the editorial problem the networks are weighing. The address lands four months before the 2026 midterms.
The reactions, from people with a stake
The commentary has been loud on all sides, and it’s worth attributing rather than summarizing.
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat running for reelection this year, said Trump is “reheating debunked conspiracy theories and launching bizarre new lies because he fears losing these midterm elections.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told MeidasTouch the networks shouldn’t carry it at all: “I think we have an ethical obligation not to air things that undermine our elections and are not rooted in fact.”
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta went further on his independent show, saying networks “should absolutely, positively not air this madman on Thursday night.”
Those are the arguments for not airing it, made by people with obvious stakes in the midterms.
The counterargument is equally available: a sitting president’s address to the nation is inherently newsworthy, viewers are capable of evaluating it themselves, and a network deciding what the public may hear from its own head of state is a serious thing to do casually, whoever occupies the office.
What nobody knows yet
Several basic facts are still open, which is worth saying plainly rather than filling in.
It isn’t confirmed the White House ever formally requested network airtime. CNN reported it was unclear, and as of Tuesday the Washington Post reported no request had been made. Networks generally aren’t preempting anything unless they’re asked to.
CBS and Fox still haven’t committed. And the actual content of the declassified material Trump says he’ll reveal is unknown until he says it.
What happens at 9
The practical answer for anyone who wants to watch is simple: it’s on ABC News Live, NBC News NOW, White House social channels, and The Daily Wire, all free.
The bigger question stays open. ABC made a call that’s defensible on the record, consistent with what it did to a Democratic president in 2022, and legally airtight, while sitting across the table from a regulator with an August vote on its calendar. All of those things are true at once.
Nine o’clock, and everybody finds out what the news actually is.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Reuters, Deadline, and Axios (July 16, 2026), verified the networks’ decisions — ABC News carrying the address on ABC News Live and ABC News Radio with “comprehensive, anchored coverage” and in its regular newscasts while stating it is “prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur,” NBC News carrying it on NBC News NOW with a special report on the broadcast network afterward, CBS and Fox not having announced plans as of Thursday afternoon, the 9 p.m. ET start time, and experts’ observation that broadcasters hold broad First Amendment rights to decide what they air against a historical custom of carrying most presidential addresses
Axios and Deadline (2022-2026), verified the precedent — ABC, CBS, and NBC all declining in 2022 to broadcast President Joe Biden’s primetime address on threats to democracy amid criticism that it was a partisan speech aimed at the midterms, and Deadline’s note that networks have also bypassed prior Joe Biden and Barack Obama addresses upon White House request
Reuters, Poynter, and MS NOW (via The Daily Beast) (July 2026), verified the context — the FCC’s unprecedented pressure on broadcasters under the current administration, the August 6 FCC vote on local TV ownership rules that could trigger a legal fight over the agency’s authority, MS NOW’s reporting that the address is expected to cover voting machine security and declassified intelligence the White House says shows foreign interference plans in the 2020 election, the speech falling four months before the 2026 midterms, uncertainty over whether the White House formally requested airtime, and quoted reactions from Senator Jon Ossoff, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jim Acosta