Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States in the absolute wee hours of the morning Australian time, with both he and his soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris participating in the Biden Inauguration ceremony.
The historic event brings an official end to the Presidency of Donald Trump, who will not be attending the ceremony in a break with tradition for an outgoing President. Instead, Trump and his wife Melania will reportedly depart Washington DC in the early hours of the morning and head for Florida.
Folloiwing Biden’s inauguration, a star-studded special, hosted by Tom Hanks, will air across the globe, featuring a raft of big-name appearances and performances from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Eva Longoria, and a stack of others.
And while all this goes down at a respectable daylight hour in Washington, here in Australia it’ll be the absolute butt-crack of dawn when proceedings kick off.
So here’s a quick and dirty guide as to what time you should haul yourself out of bed if you’re keen to tune in to the Biden Inauguration, and how you can patch yourself into what’s looming as a fairly pivotal day in the history of America as a democratic nation. Or just what time you should be waking up if you wanna watch 90 minutes of Tom Hanks talk nicely through the TV. Either or.
WHAT TIME IS THE BIDEN INAUGURATION ON?
Official proceedings in Washington kick off at 10am local time, with the Biden Inauguration commencing at midday. Here in Australia, that translates thusly:
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS BEGIN
Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra: 2:00am
Adelaide: 1:30am
Brisbane: 1:00am
Darwin: 12:30am
Perth: 11:00pm
BIDEN & HARRIS INAUGURATION
Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra: 4:00am
Adelaide: 3:30am
Brisbane: 3:00am
Darwin: 2:30am
Perth: 1:00am
Following that, the inauguration’s Virtual Parade, a sprawling event featuring a stack of bands, comedians, and various other famous heads, kicks off at 3:15pm Washington time. Here, that be:
INAUGURATION VIRTUAL PARADE
Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra: 7:15am
Adelaide: 6:45am
Brisbane: 6:15am
Darwin: 5:45am
Perth: 4:15am
Later in the day, the “prime-time” special featuring Hanks and others hits the air at around 8:30pm Washington time. But youse here in the Down Undah can set your watches thusly:
PRIME-TIME CELEBRATING AMERICA SPECIAL
Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra: 12:30pm
Adelaide: 12:00pm
Brisbane: 11:30am
Darwin: 11:00am
Perth: 9:30am
WHERE CAN I WATCH?
All the major Australian TV networks are carrying the Inauguration live as it happens, with coverage on Nine, Seven, ABC, and SBS beginning at 3am AEDT. Network Ten is pulling the trigger slightly earlier than its competitors, and will flick the switch two hours earlier at 1am AEDT.
If regular-ole’ TV isn’t your thing, the coverage will be available on each network’s associated live streaming app, and on YouTube via ABC News 24.
Beyond that, the whole shebang is being streamed live via the President-elect’s official Inauguration page, which itself is housed on YouTube. The live stream is embedded below, and you can set your YouTube reminders accordingly.
If, for some reason, that goes pear-shaped (there’s no official word on whether it’ll be geoblocked or not, but you’d think it wouldn’t be) all the major US networks will be carrying the Inauguration Ceremony itself, including MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC. All of those have live streams on YouTube which are easily accessible (we’ve even linked them all for you!)
The short answer here is that it’s going to be really bloody hard to miss it, if you happen to be awake at the right time.
Set the alarm, fix yourself a Hot Toddy, and settle in. It’s gonna be a bumpy one.
