Chicago mayoral forums – your viewer and streaming guide

Vallas, Johnson head into home stretch

There are two weeks to go in one of the most raucous and close Chicago mayoral races in recent memory by far.

The race to replace Lori Lightfoot in City Hall featuring challengers Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson advanced last month to the mayoral runoff taking place April 4, as Lightfoot failed to even get more than 17 percent of the vote, marking the first time an incumbent was defeated in the non-partisan election format. 

Since then, the two have battled in forums – televised and non-televised and in the press over education, crime, and of course, race – which true to Chicago tradition, will play an important role in this election whether we like it or not as the media has especially made it a focus. Whoever wins will have a tough task of restoring the city’s glory as crime, the pandemic, population loss, and a battered international image has hurt Chicago, though to be fair, this has been the case for over a decade now – even dating back to when Richard M. Daley was mayor (you would know this if you’ve read the blog since 2007 as this space regularly featured not-so-flattering write-ups about the Windy City, mainly about how things are run here.)

Four years ago, this space blasted the large number of mayoral forums – which used to be called debates. But unlike the 1980s when mayoral debates were carried by several stations live in prime-time, today we live in a different television environment where few viewers watch anything live outside of sports outside of football and the Presidential Debates, shared viewing experiences in an on-demand universe are unfortunately, a thing of the past and local media outlets must adjust. 

With that said, there are numerous televised forums left to go with Nexstar independent WGN-TV airing a one-hour forum tonight at 7 p.m. and Fox-owned WFLD has one Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Both can be streamed on their respective websites, not to mention WGN Plus and Tubi. CBS-owned WBBM has one scheduled for 6 p.m. March 28 and live streaming on the station’s streaming news channel CBS News Chicago. 

ABC-owned WLS-TV and NBC-owned WMAQ have already aired their forums, and are available on their respective websites. And while not announced, other forums hosted by media outlets could be on tap, including those from the Chicago Tribune, WTTW, WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s, and WCPT though T Dog Media was not able to confirm when, where, or even if these forums would take place.

The Chicago election closes out an exhaustive year-long cycle of non-stop political advertising, dating back to the first commercials for the gubernatorial primary candidates beginning in March 2022 – Dan Proft and all, and for Chicago viewers who watch live TV or watch FAST streaming channels, the end of the road couldn’t come soon enough. 

That is until the 2024 political races begin.  

[An earlier draft incorrectly stated Illinois’ gubernatorial primary took place in March 2022 while it actually took place in June of that same year.]