How TV Covered the Moment of Impeachment

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, CBS cut away from the proceedings for the season finale of the long-running reality competition show “Survivor.” At the same time, ABC dropped its Washington feed to start airing back-to-back live recreations of the 1970s-vintage Norman Lear sitcoms “Good Times” and “All in the Family.”

NBC stuck with the news, rather than its scheduled programming, which was a rerun of “Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways,” starring Ellen DeGeneres. As anchor Lester Holt led political analysts and correspondents through a discussion, House members were seen milling about in the background. With the tally inching toward the key number, which the network put at 214, NBC included occasional cutaways, with no audio at first, to President Donald Trump speaking at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan.

As the vote went through on the first article of impeachment, ABC broke into “Good Times” with a special report led by anchor George Stephanopoulos. A banner at the top of the screen declared, “President Trump Impeached.”

When the moment approached on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, almost midway through hosting his 8 p.m. program, said the president had devoted 45 seconds of his rally speech to the topic of the day. The show then cut to a clip from Battle Creek, with the president saying, “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” to cheers.

When it was all but official, Carlson’s reaction was muted. “They have the votes,” he said. “There it is, there it is, right there.”

His guests included Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who called the impeachment “fully unconstitutional,” and Rep. Devin Nunes of California, who compared it to “a coup attempt.”

On MSNBC at the close of the vote on the second article, anchor Brian Williams discussed with Claire McCaskill, the former Democratic senator of Missouri, the dim likelihood that the Senate would follow the House with a conviction. As the yeas mounted, Williams said: “This moment, make no mistake, is historic. We’ve crossed the threshold, making for two articles of impeachment.”

On CNN, Rick Santorum, a former senator and onetime Republican presidential candidate who is a regular commentator on the channel, was talking about former President Bill Clinton, saying that the House Republicans of 1998 had been “pretty woke” to impeach him, when considering his actions in light of the #MeToo movement.

CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell interrupted “Survivor” with a special report, noting that not one Republican had voted in favor of impeachment and citing the lack of across-the-aisle agreement as evidence of the “split screen” state of America.

Carlson, on Fox News, looked grim toward the end of his hour as a guest, Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, was saying, “The president has been terribly abused.”

At 9 p.m., CBS returned to “Survivor.” On ABC, actor Woody Harrelson, with an accent that sounded as if it had originated a thousand miles from Queens, New York, was playing Archie Bunker in the “All in the Family” reboot. And on Fox News, Sean Hannity kicked off his highly rated show by calling the impeachment a “repulsive, dangerous political stunt” and a “revolting charade.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .