How to Watch Tonight's Presidential Debate Online

Sadly, this year's presidential election is making me feel gross and horrible on the inside; I didn't know the democratic process could do that to a person. The good news is that it's almost over (maybe)! Tonight marks the FINAL televised debate between Handsy McBankrupt and Email O'Fainty.

The debate will take place at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is slated to begin at 9 p.m. ET. The format will be identical to the first debate in which all the questions will be posed by the moderator, Fox News's resident Chris Parnell-impersonator, Chris Wallace.

Like previous debates, tonight's event will be live streamed for free on a variety of platforms; really, it will be hard to avoid watching it. The major broadcast and cable news networks will offer traditional streams direct to your TV. However, if you only have access to or prefer digital streams, you'll have several options.

• You may also be interested in learning all about the secret features hidden inside your Chromecast, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV

Twitter

Recently, thought-cough tsunami Twitter has beefed up its live video offerings. So, it's not surprising that the company would seek to include a live stream of what is arguably the world's most important public affairs event. The stream will be available globally via debates.twitter.com, Twitter Moments, in official set-top Twitter apps (currently available for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Xbox One), or on streaming partner Bloomberg Politics's (@bpolitics) feed. The live stream will also include Bloomberg Television commentary a half hour before and after the debate.

Facebook

Facebook will team up with ABC News to stream the debates along with expert commentary before and after the big event. This stream will also help Facebook push its Facebook Live streaming platform.

YouTube

As part of the Google-owned streaming platform's #VoteIRL initiative (as pimped in this Ryan Seacrest promotional video), the company will offer live streams of the debates from PBS, Fox News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Telemundo. There will also be a lot of on-the-ground reporting streams from various YouTube channels, if you're into that sort of thing.

• Here are 9 tech questions we implore moderators to ask at the debate

The Usual Suspects

According to a release from the Commission on Presidential Debates, digital live streams of the debate will be available via ABC News, BuzzFeed News, CNN, C-SPAN, The Daily Caller, Fox News, Hulu, Huffington Post, NBC, PBS, Politico, Telemundo, The Wall Street Journal, Twitter, Univision, and Yahoo, among others. It will also be streaming for free on Reuters.TV, as well as Reuters's mobile apps.

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This list also includes CBS News's all-digital CBSN offering, which boasts a free continuous news stream available on multiple devices (Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, etc.) as well as on the Web.

The Future Is Now

This year's presidential debates have pulled in stratospheric ratings including record digital live streams, which has surely been magnified by the growing number of cord cutters. (The debate ratings boom probably owes less to a sudden surge in civil participation than it does to this race's inclusion of a sentient media sponge, though the Dem debates also performed very well.)

The big takeaway here is how live streaming has become such an integral part of the live broadcast mix. As it becomes cheaper to broadcast live video, we will see a continued fracturing of the ecosystem—everything will be available just about everywhere.