Thursday night was supposed to belong to Fox News.
But Donald Trump upended Fox’s plans by choosing to skip the latest Republican debate in favor of his own fundraiser for veterans in Des Moines, Iowa, creating unexpected competition for the cable news channel.
“All networks will be present and have the opportunity to carry live,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told CNNMoney.
MSNBC declined to comment on its prime time plans. CNN said it will cover Trump as a live news event. C-Span will carry it live in full.
Cable news channels have spent many hours carrying Trump rallies live, but TV news executives are loath to guarantee any coverage in advance. Such decisions are made mostly in real time as news warrants.
Fox News will be busy broadcasting its own debate, but the channel will have a correspondent in place at the Trump event for reports later in the evening.
Hicks didn’t say whether the Trump campaign has any plans to stream it online.
But one major network, CBS, will do just that. CBSN, the network’s 24/7 streaming news network, will cover Trump’s wounded warrior fundraiser, according to a CBS spokesman.
A spokeswoman for ABC News did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump will be joined by Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, presidential candidates who did not make the cut for Fox’s main stage debate. They will have debated earlier in the evening.
Other conservative cable news channels all committed to covering Trump’s event during the Fox debate.
The Blaze said it would provide “special coverage” on its website and would “likely” live stream it, while NewsMax TV said it would air the event at 9 ET.
One America News, a conservative news channel that launched in 2013, plans to air Trump’s program live and in its entirety. The fledgling channel had tried to win sponsorship of a Republican National Committee debate, but was unsuccessful.
OAN has “positioned a satellite transmission truck at the event for multiple camera, broadcast quality live coverage,” according to channel president Charles Herring.
“We are getting flooded with inquiries from our viewers on whether One America News will carry Mr. Trump’s event live,” Herring told CNNMoney. “Clearly, there is high demand for tonight’s event.”
