Good Luck Against Tonight’s Presidential Debate, Rest of TV!

11 cable shows are bold (or dumb) enough to run originals versus Trump-Clinton this evening

Hofstra debate stage
An empty Hofstra debate stage awaits Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

Tonight’s first 2016 presidential debate will be simulcast across a ton of TV networks, though a select few are being bold enough to do their own thing.

Cable channels like USA, Discovery, Bravo, MTV, ID and Nat Geo are airing originals against the big political event, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET. For those not interested in seeing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump squabble for 90 minutes, might we interest you in the following counter-programming?

“Real Housewives of Orange County,” 9 p.m. ET/PT, Bravo
“Demolition Theater,” 9 p.m. ET/PT, Discovery
“Sacred Steel Bikes,” 10 p.m. ET/PT Discovery
“Tiny House Hunters,” 9 p.m. ET/PT, HGTV
“House Hunters,” 10 p.m. ET/PT, HGTV
“Killer Instinct,” 9/8c, ID
“Teen Mom,” 9 p.m. ET/PT, MTV
“Mary + Jane,” 10 p.m. ET/PT, MTV
“Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks,” 9 p.m. ET/PT Nat Geo Channel
“Live Free or Die,” 9 p.m. ET/PT Nat Geo Channel
“Monday Night Raw,” 8/7c, USA Network

There’s even some fresh shows for the kiddies! Disney XD plans to run some stuff for those (luckily) not old enough to vote just yet. So, sorry about the world you’re inheriting, here are some cartoons.

As for the debate, that’ll run across C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, as well as all cable news channels, including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, among others. It’ll also be streaming on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook Live — perhaps you’ve heard of those platforms?

Click here to find out everywhere you can view the damn thing. For the millennials, just check out our how-to-stream it guide here.

The Trump-Clinton one-on-one will draw big viewership, though it won’t top 1980’s record-holding version, when Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan brought in a whopping 80.6 million total viewers. Obviously, back then, all TV viewing was linear, making modern-day comparisons dicey at best, and complete apples-to-oranges at worst.

Click here to see all of the previous presidential debates ranked by overall eyeballs — they’re not Super Bowl numbers, but the data is pretty mind-blowing.

In conclusion, considering Barack Obama and Mitt Romney kicked off the 2012 debate cycle to 67.2 million total viewers — and obviously without the Trump trainwreck factor — TheWrap would like to wish the best of luck to “Demolition Theater.”

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