‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’: How to Watch, What Time and What Channel

The holiday season is right around the corner, which means all of your favorite Christmas specials are set to hit the airwaves. On Monday night, it will be Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer that has its turn in the spotlight.

Viewers looking to watch it can catch it live at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Viewers who can’t catch it live will have to set their tuners to record it. If not, most on-demand providers will have the special in its collection.

“Narrated by Burl Ives, who is also heard as the voice of Sam the Snowman, this favorite is a music story based on the popular song of the same name by Johnny Marks. It recounts the tale of a shy reindeer whose Christmas spirit is dampened because his shiny nose has made him the laughing stock of all of Christmasville.”

Rudolph first premiered back in 1964. The show has a 55-minute run time. A sequel was made in 1976 called Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.

The original special has become a mainstay on television screens during the holiday season. In a recent post on Nov. 27 in the New York Post, the show was labeled “America’s favorite holiday special.”

According to the post, 83 percent of those who were polled were in support of the claymation special. Behind that were A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

While the show has garnered a ton of fans, there are some viewers who have critiqued the short movie over its message of bullying.

In the special, Rudolph finds himself ostracized, resorting to his parents even putting him in disguise to avoid being made fun of by his peers. Corinne Conley, who was a voice actor in the special, said in an interview with TMZ last year defended the bullying claims.

“I don’t think that by getting sensitive to bullying that you want to copy it… you want to get rid of it!” Conley said. “And certainly in Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, everyone is reconciled happily at the end of the movie and let’s hope in today’s society, the things that people are bullying about can also be rectified.”

Arthur Rankin Jr., who was a co-producer for the special, said the special can also be seen as an outlet for kids who may feel “slightly inferior” considering Rudolph ultimately perseveres and comes out the hero in the end.