Election Night Bingo

Election Night Bingo

These cards were created for the UK General Election in July 2024. For future elections (including the US presidential election), please check back nearer the time

Our election night bingo cards are packed with events that might happen and things you might see or hear in the course of election night TV or radio coverage.  For example, you can mark off Red Wall if anyone mentions it, or it appears in a caption or graphic.  And you can mark off Count Binface if anyone mentions him or you see him on screen at the Richmond & Northallerton count (as always, he’s standing against the incumbent Prime Minister).  Mentions do not have to be by an official presenter or guest, it can be anyone seen on screen or heard!

You can watch a single channel’s coverage all of the way through, or flit between them – just make sure that if you choose to play the bingo cards competitively, you’re all watching the same coverage.

Election Night Coverage Details

ITV coverage will be led by Tom Bradby (a veteran of three previous General Elections) and guests will include Nicola Sturgeon, George Osborne and Ed Balls.  ITV News political editor Robert Peston will also be there. At 6am, Good Morning Britain will take over with guests including Gordon Brown, Harrient Harman and Kwasi Kwarteng and journalists from the Mail and Mirror.

Sky coverage will be led by Kay Burley, who has been covering General Elections ever since 1979.  Guests will include Andy Burnham and Ruth Davidson.  The Sky News Psephology team will be led by Professor Michael Thrasher, who has filled this position in every election since 1989.  (If you don’t know what psephology is – it’s the statistical study of elections and trends in voting).  At 7am, Sophy Ridge will take over.

On Channel 4, the coverage will be led by Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy and former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, and Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart will guest throughout.

BBC coverage will be led by Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie.  This is the first time the BB election night coverage has been led by two people, and Kuenssberg is also the first woman to anchor the BBC on election night.  As previously, Jeremy Vine will helm the swingometer and analysis will be provided by John Curtice.  In the morning, Sophie Raworth and Jon Kay will take over.

LBC Radio will broadcast a 7 hour show led by Andrew Marr and Shelagh Fogarty with guests Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall.  At 5am Nick Ferrari takes over for a 5 hour extended breakfast show.  LBC owners Global are also going to be displaying the exit poll and election results as they happen on their UK-wide network of 2000 digital advertising billboards.

Times Radio are planning a massive “100 hours of non-stop live election programming” starting at 9:55pm on election night with Matt Chorley leading until 6am. The election night overage will include a live recording of the “How To Win An Election” podcast at 11pm.

Election Night Timeline

Election Night kicks off in earnest with the release of exit poll information shortly after the polls close at 10pm.  The Herald has a full list of exactly which results to expect when – here’s some of the more interesting ones to look out for:

• 12:15am Basildon & Billericay, where the Tories parachuted in their party chair as their candidate much to the disgust of local party members
• 2.30am Rochdale, where the incumbent is George Galloway
• 3am – Chingford & Woodford Green, where the Labour candidate was replaced at the last minute.  Also Fareham & Waterlooville, where the incumbent is Suella Braverman. Also Islington North, where Jeremy Corbyn is standing as an independent.
• 3.15am – Bristol Central, where the Greens are hoping to gain a seat
• 3.30am – Esher & Walton, which the Lib Dems have been trying to take for years
• 3.45am – Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven, where Labour deselected the incumbent
• 4am – Richmond and Northallerton, where the incumbent is Rishi Sunak.  Also Clacton, where Nigel Farage is making his 7th attempt at election.
• 4.30am – Surrey Heath, where the incumbent is Michael Gove (who isn’t seeking re-election)
• 5.30am – Norfolk South West, where the incumbent is Liz Truss

How to use the Bingo Card Generator

You can play for fun with just one card, but if you’d like to generate a set of cards which are all different from each other, here’s how:

• Tap to start
• At this stage you can make any desired tweaks to your cards:
  • We’ve set the grid size to 4×4 giving each player 16 items to look out for, but you can use the dropdown to change it to 3×3 or 5×5 if you’d like
  • We intentionally chose neutral colours for our card design but if you’d like to change it to the colours of your preferred political party, go right ahead
  • You’re bound to have plenty of ideas for things to go on the bingo card that we thought were just too controversial or too sweary.  Now is the time to add them to the list, and you can also remove any items you don’t like; just ensure you keep enough items on the list for everyone to get a different bingo card.
• Press Generate Bingo Cards
• For printed bingo cards, enter the number you want and press Generate Printable Cards.
  • A page or pages of cards will be generated, all different from each other and unique to you.
  • They can be printed from your browser (adjusting the scaling via the printer settings if necessary) or you can copy or bookmark the URL for printing later.
• If you don’t have a printer you can Invite through email.
  • Each person you invite will receive a link to their very own unique bingo card, and you’ll get your own card too. (We don’t keep their email addresses).
  • Play your card on your phone or other device – when you daub an item, it changes colour.

Mark off the items as you spot them. The first to complete a line wins and if you’re not planning to stay up all night you can stop it there, but if you’re pushing through to the bitter end you will probably want to play on to see who completes the most lines or gets full house.