The Walt Disney Co. and ABC News have been planning something big for America’s 250th birthday. According to Variety, the programming that Disney networks will air on the Fourth of July has been being worked on for almost a year now.

The programming started on July 3rd at 10:00 p.m., with “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir offering a rare look inside the Statue of Liberty. Muir will continue to host the coverage, which will last until Saturday morning and afternoon. Many other events will be happening on various Disney-owned networks such as ABC, Disney+, ESPN, Hulu, National Geographic, Freeform, FX, and ABC News Live. Various special guests are set to appear, such as MrBeast (Beast Games), Reba McEntire (Reba, The Voice), Tim McGraw (1883, Friday Night Lights), Brandi Carlile, and Nick Jonas (Jonas Brothers).

This large number of live events occurring on America’s 250th anniversary comes at a time when Disney is pushing for live events to help network performance during the streaming era. Over eight weeks in early 2027, Disney’s television networks and streaming services will host the College Football Playoffs, the Oscars, the Grammys, and Super Bowl LXI.

Other networks are using the large events happening on the 4th to test out live events and see how they benefit their network. CNN, Fox News, NBC News, CBS News, and MS NOW have all hosted or will host live events covering the country’s birthday.

These events will cause many who work at these networks to have unusual schedules. Seni Tienabaso, the vice president of ABC News Live, says that he will likely be working from 5 a.m. Saturday straight to 11 p.m.

“There is a lot more live than there is taped in this,” he says. “We are curating every live shot, every bit of tape,” he says.“With all of the people fanned out across the country,” he adds, “some correspondent will undoubtedly signal ‘Hey, I’ve got the goods,’ which may deliver an exciting live moment. That’s one of the fun things about it as well,” he adds.

The project has been shepherded by Debra OConnell, chairman of Disney Entertainment Television, and Almin Karamehmedovic, president of ABC News. If Disney’s coverage of the event brings its networks success, others will likely do similar things in the future.