TV Elections

" WE CAN NOW PROJECT..." ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA By. Sean P McCracken "CBS NEWS now projects...NBC NEWS is ready to declare ...ABC NEWS is now making a call in....CNN now estimates...declares...projects....calls...predicts...retracts..." We hear these few opening words and wait on the edges of our seats as the names and places which follow these familiar predicates make very well be those which tell us in the United States who will occupy the White House for the next four years. We hear the words, follow the talking-heads and read the ever changing scripts which scroll, flash or blink across our television screens. It is a ritual that has been repeated an-masse every four years since 1952...and for a select few, 1948. Since its earliest days, television has had a love affair with politics, albeit sometimes a strained one. From the first primitive experiments at the Republican National Convention in 1940, to the multi angled, figure laden, information over-loaded spectacles of today, the "happening" that unfolds every four years on the second Tuesday in November, known as "Election Night" still holds a special place in either our heart...or guts. Somehow, it still manages to keep us glued to our television for hours on end. This one night that rolls around every four years has "grown up" with many of us over the last 64 years. Staring off as little more than chalk boards, name plates and radio announcers plopped in front of large, monochromatic cameras that barely sent signals beyond the limits of New York City and gradually morphing into color-laden, graphic-filled, information packed, multi channel marathons that can be seen by virtually...and virtually seen by...almost any human on the planet. With constantly changing personalities, technology and presentation methods...It has been an interesting ride. BLAZING THE WAY The Museum of Television and Radio in New York holds one very special piece in its collection. A kinescope (A method of recording live television images with a 16mm film camera in the days before video tape or DVDs) that was created by NBC/LIFE on November 3, 1948. Remember that famous Black & White photograph of President Harry Truman holding up a newspaper emblazed with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"? Well, it wasn't only newspapers and still photographers who were working that night...the "TV people" were too. NBC television, in cooperation with LIFE magazine, joined forces to bring the sights, sounds and returns of Election Night 1948 to those Americans fortunate enough to have television sets. The methods and means employed were primitive by technological standards, however, in so very many ways what was seen on the small screen that night...and morning...looks very much like what was to follow, and, to some extent, what still remains.

Three anchormen (Although the term had not yet been coined...wait 4 years) were seated around a purpose-built desk. H.V. Kaltenborn, Bob Trout and John Cameron Swayze...of TIMEX watch fame, sat beside one another with NBC microphones (for both television AND radio) in front of them. A monitor, sloped at an angle, was built into the desk in front of the three men to allow them to follow what was happening. Tally boards were present...in the form of chalk boards... to display the returns numerically or for the benefit of anyone who could not figure out how to adjust the sound on their set. Live cameras were stationed in the headquarters of both President Truman and challenger Thomas E. Dewey, and images of both men and their running mates were front and center, all blown up and printed on matte boards made to look like LIFE magazine covers. There were no coast-to -coast hook-ups (again, wait four more years) no on-screen graphics, no giant map of the United Stated colored red, blue, and also white...to accommodate Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats...and no local cut-ways and no constantly scrolling text at the bottom of the screen. One quote from that evening which MAY ring a bell with some, "Ohio was the payoff". A telegram to this effect finally brought about a concession from Thomas Dewey at 11:18AM. 1948, however, was merely akin to dipping one's toe into the bathwater. The true marriage of Election Night and television was still yet to come. By 1952 the estimated number of television sets in the United States had grown to something in the neighborhood of 15 million. Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Ed Murrow and David Brinkley were now household names . In 1951, Ed Murrow linked the east and west coasts of America via WCBS in New York and KPIX in San Francisco. By the time Election Night 1952 rolled around television was ready and well rehearsed for what was to come. During the network's coverage of the summer conventions, a new name and face was added to the television lexicon. To serve as MC...later changed to "Anchorman"...CBS newsman Walter Cronkite was charged with providing narration, explanation and timing for CBS's coverage. The coverage and Cronkite's reception were so well received that he was returned to CBS HQ in New York to perform the same task on November 5, 1952. Cronkite was not alone on the set that night, those at home watching and listening would also see the faces and hear the familiar voices of Charles Collingwood, Eric Severeid, and Betty Furness...dropping by every now and then, both live and on film, to try and sell post-war Americans something made by Westinghouse. Furness would often spend much of her time opening and closing ovens and refrigerators , garnering almost as much on-air time as the newsmen or the candidates. SIDE NOTE: Furness was seen so often during CBS's Election Coverage from 1952-1960 that one young, baby boomer dress as a cowboy was characterized as asking his television -watching father "Who's winning dad, Ike, Stevenson...or Betty Furness"? Viewers also got the unique experience of getting to watch and listen to Charles Collingwood converse with another "guest" in the CBS studio that night...an "Electronic Brain". The brain was actually an

enormous UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) computer, provided to CBS by Remington Rand to help out with the tallying and projecting of election results. Collingwood would turn to the computer and, in jest, ask who it projected as the winner of the Presidency...Democrat Adlai Stevenson or Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Believe it or not, the "new fangled thing" actually worked. Before 9pm EST, UNIVAC whirled, whizzed, clinged, clanged and then projected the electoral outcome within 1 electoral vote. CBS was still skeptical at the time and did not release the projections for over an hour. By 1956, NBC and ABC had caught the computer bug and employed the "Electronic Brains" in their coverage. In order to broadcast as much data as possible in a visual manner, the CBS Election Night studio had to be huge. In the days before Chroma-key, character generators or digital graphics, any numerical figures or words seen on screen had to be physically made. While chalk boards sufficed in 1948, magnetic boards or rolling wheel-type displays, like those seen on old gasoline pumps , were now the norm. Often, dark boards with white lettering would be shown photographed by one camera and then another scene "mixed" or partially dissolved into it in order to give the illusion of on-screen wording. By 1956 there were a few changes noted by the astute viewer. The financially strapped Du-Mont Network went by the wayside. The "soon-to-be-in-third-place-forever" ABC debuted in 1954. Over at NBC, just one week before election night, David Brinkley was teamed up with a serious, humble and bespeckled partner named Chet Huntley...9 years before the "The Odd Couple" was even written. Dwight Eisenhower once again defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson in a landslide and, once again, the networks brought the returns to America in much the same way and by mostly the same people. Little did any of them know that 1956 was to start an election night trend that would run until 1984, a cycle of "landslide" then "cliffhanger". The first of these cliffhangers would come in 1960 and would change the face of not only television news, but television as a whole. GROWING UP If television of the 1940s and 50s was in "infancy" then the 1960s and 70s can only be described as its "puberty"...acne, temper, raging hormones and all. But along with the usual growing pains, television news would blossom in the 1960s like never before or since. It would start out the decade with the same ol' names and faces set in monochrome, and end with both the old and young faces broadcast around the world "In Living Color". In 1960 a new political wind was blowing across the nation. For the first time, two men born in the 20th century were to face off against one another...two men who knew television and its wide reaching effects quite well. Both Richard Nixon and John Kennedy had appeared on news programs like Meet the Press, The Longines Chronoscope and Face the Nation many times since 1951. Kennedy had been seen often during the telecasts of some Senate hearings and Nixon, as Vice President, was never far from a camera.

Nixon and Kennedy squared off in four, 1-hour long debates in the months leading up to election night. Nixon did not make a good "showing" in the first debate, breaking one of the cardinal rules of television and stage by not applying a layer of make-up to offset the harsh studio lights. Nixon would hold his own in the next 3 meetings but the damage had been done and by election night he and Kennedy were in a virtual dead heat. Television was about to have its first long night. Huntley and Brinkley were back, seated behind aa X-shaped desk perched above the NBC Election Central. At this high point they were surround by a circular bank of tally boards, teletypes, regional maps (East, South, Mid-West and West) and an army of NBC employees running around, delivering notes and putting "V" marks beside candidate's names. Of course, an RCA 501 computer was present, although located across town with NBC's Richard Harkniss on hand to translate its readouts. Other soon-to-be-familiar-faces on hand to bring the returns to life included John Chancellor, Frank McGee, Merrell Muller, Sander Vanocour and...since the coverage ran well into the following morning....Today Show host Dave Garraway. In one of his many glib moments, David Brinkley, upon learning that the RCA 501 computer was also used to figure odds, quipped. "We may be able to find some other kind of work for [it] when the election is over." Walter Cronkite was back in the CBS NEWS Election Headquarters along with the likes of Charles Kuralt, Charles Von Fremd, Stuart Novins, Betty Furness and her kitchen accoutrements and, of course, the UNIVAC, reported on by the moderator of the first debate, Howard K. Smith. CBS's coverage was delivered in a manner that, today, would seem very odd. Rather than assigning electoral votes to either Kennedy or Nixon once a state had been projected, a running total of electoral votes was maintained and shown on-screen...by one of the very early uses of the Chroma-Key technique. (Think Green Screen) This method of presentation meant that whichever candidate was leading in a state at a given time was, for that time, "given" that state's electoral votes. Should the other candidate surpass him in the tallies, the numbers would then be subtracted from his total and added to the other. NBC did not follow this, somewhat confusing method, in the same manner. Their "Big Board" however, did list the number of Electoral Votes but divided the number into three categories, Won, Leading and Total...each with its own, separate, column. Solari boards, or as they were often referred to, the "Clicker Boards" made their debut on NBC's coverage. These machine could display both letters, numbers and virtually any other insignia found on a keyboard. Operated from behind by switches and knobs, these boards earned the "clicker" name as they often sounded like an adding machine as the figures were changed...often before the very eyes of the viewer. In 1960, boards such as these were utilized primarily for the "national" figures, I.E. Electoral Votes and Popular Vote totals.

As expected, Connecticut reported in very early, going for Kennedy, however, this night was destined to be an all-nighter. Early returns continued to show well for Kennedy but as the Mid-West returns started to be reported, the margin narrowed. By 3:00am, Kennedy's Popular Vote lead had shrunk to about 1 million. Fatigued from his last days of campaigning, Richard Nixon broke with tradition and took to the airwaves at about 3:10am EST from his HQ in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Nixon essentially told his supporters he was going to sleep and whatever would be, would be. Back at NBC and CBS, the Solari Boards continued to click and chatter as Kennedy's margin was continuously whittled away. At about this time California appeared to stop counting its votes.

At 7:00am EST Dave Garraway and the rest of the Today Show cast joined Huntley & Brinkley, still fresh after 12 hours of nearly constant on-air time, at the NBC Election Central set to announce that the Today Show would not be seen and they would defer their time slot to the continuous coverage. CBS followed suit and remained on the air. Just over 90% of the popular votes were counted and, at one point, Chet Huntley reported that the Popular Vote margin dropped as low as 25,000 votes. The tally would eventually settle at a gap of only about 110,000 votes nationwide. Minnesota, New Mexico, Illinois and California remained in the mix well into the late morning hours and the networks were thrown into a state of suspended animation, waiting, counting and rehashing, perhaps praying that 5 more Electoral Votes would be added to Kennedy's 265. It was 7:19am EST when the "V" sticker was placed beside Kennedy's name on the Illinois board, notching his electoral vote total to 296. NBC's "Victory Desk", perhaps still groggy after 14 straight hours of work, soon erroneously declared Kennedy the winner in the state of California, a declaration that eventually had to be retracted. ..a scene that would not be repeated for another 40 years, this The usual scenes soon followed. Nixon got out of bed and made a genuine concession speech in front of the network cameras. Kennedy followed-up with the traditional victory speech a short time later. By noon EST it was all over and television coverage returned to, as much as it was at the time, normal. It would not, however, remain normal for long. The ratings success of the 1960 election coverage spurred an increased nationwide interest in news events. Nielson ratings later reported that nearly 30 million people, or 65% of the entire country, had tuned in to coverage on one of the three networks in 1960.These flames of news interest were fanned to the inferno point 3 years later when all 3 networks devoted nearly 4 entire broadcast days (They still went off the air over night) to continuous coverage of the events surrounding the assassination President Kennedy. For 1964 nearly all of the usual suspects were back on the air, reading returns and making projections. There were few changes in overall style, however, a new face appeared on CBS's coverage. Fresh in people's minds as CBS's "Man in Dallas" on the day President Kennedy was shot, a young Dan Rather

joined Cronkite and the rest of the CBS team for the comparatively short night which saw another Texan, Lyndon Johnson, elected in a landslide. (Notice the continuing pattern?) Huntley and Brinkley returned to their "X" shaped desk yet again and recent CBS defector Howard K. Smith took over at the ABC desk. In order to help speed-up and streamline the process of counting the votes, the "Big Three" joined forced with the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) to form the News Election Service (NES). For the first time, the raw figures being shown and heard on NBC, CBS and ABC would...at least in theory...be the same. History does not seem to record anyone voicing a fear as to what would happen if the NES got something wrong. (Now, wait 36 more years) The NES would be put to its first real test in 1968. Whereas 1964 has been a no-brainer, 1968 was ticktight come November 5th. Since nearly being left for dead following the riots at the Democratic National Convention in August, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the heir-apparent to Lyndon Johnson, (who decided to save his sanity and skin by not running) had battled back from about a 16% deficit to a statistical tie with only, as CBS dubbed their Sunday night pre-election special, "Two Days to Go". Making things even more interesting was the fact that, for the first time in 20 years, a viable 3rd party candidate had entered the equation. George C. Wallace, former Democratic Governor of Alabama got his American Independent Party on the ballot in all 50 states . This left Nixon and Humphrey in the unenviable position of likely vying for a plurality rather than a majority vote. For Election Night most of the same faces were back in the same places...only this time their faces had hues and tints. For the first time, all three networks were presenting their coverage in color. "In Living Color" if you were tuned to NBC. Walter Cronkite again was front-row-center at CBS's enormous, circular Election Night Headquarters. Head and fellow newsmen Dan Rather, Roger Mudd, Mike Wallace, Joe Benti and Eric Severeid were all seated around, what Walter jokingly referred to as, "Our great big wastebasket in the sky", in essence, a large round hole. In keeping with the world of Chroma-key inserts, CBS and NBC opted for uniform blue in the coloring of the sets, ABC decided to go with light orange. A large board behind Cronkite's left shoulder (right on your home screen) was painted green to allow individual boards and text slide to be shown. An enormous IBM Model 54 computer, which took up an entire floor at Black Rock, was put to use counting and estimating the votes as they were phoned in. A technological note, while the chroma-key method was still in wide use this night, viewers also saw some of the new character generated texts appearing and often flashing on their screen. This new method typed...and the font really looked it...words directly onto the screen with no need of a green or blue screen, a text board and another camera. The only real sacrifice being that the stencil-like words were often quite hard to read. These character generated texts were put to wide use by CBS with its CBS NEWS ESTIMATE boards...which were not really boards.

Huntley and Brinkley were back in their "perch" for the final time as a team. John Chancellor was also back, this time seated behind something that looked like a television set on top of a typewriter...the first Personal Computer to appear in election night coverage. Howard K. Smith again was in the big chair for ABC, occasionally joined in his work by Bill Lawrence and a new-comer to ABC's coverage, a young Peter Jennings, who had only recently been ousted from his Evening News desk. He had then replaced by Bob Young, who was quickly ousted by Frank Reynolds...who also dropped in from time to time. Just after 7pm when continuous coverage started, the first sign that this was going to be a unique night reared it head. The state of Alabama was projected by all three networks as being firmly in George Wallace's column. At the time, this was still considered to be the old New Deal "Solid South" of the Democratic Party so the loss of 11 electoral votes from the two major candidates was a serious matter. Wallace would eventually carry 4 more states, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas...and one maverick Elector from North Carolina cast 1 vote for Wallace the following January. Back in the studios, everyone was conceding that this was now going to be a very close race and, likely, another VERY long night. By 11pm EST the popular vote was nearly dead even. Returns from Chicago were slowed to a crawl when Mayor Richard J. Daley refused to force his local precinct captains to allow the NES personnel in to report. A computer failure in Dallas promised to slow it's returns. A new type of ballot, punch-card in design, was being utilized in Los Angeles County California, however, the new design actually slowed the process of reporting returns. Apparently no one had taken into account the fact that the punched-cards had to be taken from each precinct to be counted by one computer. One by one states were projected as being in one or the other's column. While the popular vote wobbled back and forth, Nixon maintained a sizeable lead in the electoral vote heading into the 3am EST hour. Then, as was the case in 1960, things seemed to ground to a halt. The flow of returns from most locales slowed and the returns that did come in left many of key states too close to call. California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Missouri and, of course, Illinois remained uncalled. The irony of the situation in Chicago was not lost on either the anchormen or the campaign workers. By 4am most were beginning to draw parallels with 1960. Edmund Muskie (VP with Humphrey)Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, Spiro Agnew (VP with Nixon) and General Curtis Lemay (VP with Wallace) all made television appearances in much the same manner as Richard Nixon in 1960. This time around, however, Richard Nixon was a no-show. Reports from earlier in the evening, later "confirmed" by Nixon's Press Secretary Herb Kline, even went so far as to suggest that he would make no appearance until at least Thursday regardless of the outcome. Around 4:30am, the state of Pennsylvania was projected as being in the Humphrey column. At around 5am, the states of California and Ohio were projected as being in Nixon's column. The many ironies of 1960 were again repeated as all eyes, and cameras, turned to Illinois.

CBS and ABC declared Illinois to be in the Nixon column just before 9am. NBC did not make this projection until nearly noon. This late call made for a rather humorous moment on NBC. When Illinois was finally called, an NBC floor worker moved to place a red check mark beside Nixon's name on the Illinois board, a move which was quickly followed by a loud applause from others in the studio. TNBC's Edwin Newman quickly interjected and explained that the applause was for the man putting the check mark on the highly placed board and not a display of partiality. Humphrey took to the stage at the Leamington Hotel in Minneapolis to concede. Nixon then broke his pledge from the day before came onto the stage at the Waldorph Astoria in New York to make his victory statement. Election "Night" had run for nearly 18 hours. SIDE NOTE: Just to show how much the electoral map of the United States has changed since 1968, Texas was carried by Humphrey, the Democrat. California and Wisconsin were carried by Nixon, the Republican. "It appears the landslide is on" quipped Walter Cronkite at 7:18EST on Election Night 1972. Eric Severeid agreed. It seems likely that Cronkite, Severeid and their opposite numbers at NBC and ABC were all thinking, thankfully, that they would be in bed much earlier than 4 years prior. They would. There was little shuffling or changes at NBC and CBS for 1972, although Chet Huntley had since retired, leaving new Nightly News anchor John Chancellor in command. NBC decided to stay with a blue set, CBS remained in the same studio but changed the color theme from a smooth blue to a stippled off-white. ABC on the other hand revamped its election night set and added their latest hire, former CBS newsman Harry Reasoner, to the mix as a co-anchor for Howard K. Smith. ABC also did away with most of its Solari boards and replaced them with computer generated graphics...although one large "ticker" board was left on permanent display behind the main desk. (It would stay there for 12 years.) There was no strong 3rd party candidate on the ballot in 1972. George Wallace was seriously injured in an assassination attempt during the primaries and confined to a wheelchair. With no real role to play in the national election, Wallace joined ABC's election night coverage to provide commentary and insight via live shots from Birmingham, AL. With the outcome of the Presidential race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern already a foregone conclusion the networks shifted much of their coverage to the races in the Senate, House and those for state Governorships. Nixon was declared the winner by the networks at various times between 9pm and 9:20pm EST. While Richard Nixon ran away with the Presidential race the Republican Party lost 2 seats in the senate and gained only 12 seats in the House, barely even a dent in the Democratic majority. During live interviews on CBS and ABC, Republican National Chairman Bob Dole (R) Kansas, at the Republican Election Headquarters, lamented "as I look around the room I don't see the word 'Republican' anywhere. I haven't seen the filter-down effect". Prognostication?

Whether Senator Dole's lamentations where a sign of incredible foresight or just a lucky fluke was beside the point come Election Night 1976. Less than two years after Dole's statement Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were both out of the White House, replaced by Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller. 1976 also saw the return of televised presidential debates, the first of which was plagued in its closing minutes by a technical fault that killed the audio feed from the debate site for nearly 30 minutes. Election Night saw the return of something which had not been seen since 1948, a three man...eh...person team. Barbara Walters, formerly of the NBC Today Show, joined Harry Reasoner and Howards K. Smith at ABC's election night desk. Cronkite and his fellow CBS companions were back in place, as were John Chancellor and David Brinkley, although all of them were now anchoring their respective coverage from much smaller sets. The nearly total demise of the Solari boards , replaced now almost entirely by computer generated text, meant that only a fraction of the space previously utilized was now required. No more gigantic, rotunda-like studios surrounded by clicking boards and scurrying floor workers. Another very noticeable change for 1976 was the inclusion an enormous, 336 square foot map of the United States, situated directly between and above Chancellor and Brinkley. Maps had been used to varying degrees since the coverage of 1952, but NBC's map for 1976 would be a permanent fixture of their coverage, a sign of the shifting emphasis from the spoken word report to more focus on visual, and constant presentation. Translation: Even if your sound went out you could stay tuned to your NBC station and still know what was going on. ABC opted to stay with its two, giant, national "ticker" boards, one situated above and behind the anchor-desk-built-for-three and the other behind...New faces to the mix in 1976 included CBS's Bob Schieffer, ABC's Ann Compton and NBC's Tom Brokaw and Catherine Mackin. 1976 would be Eric Severeid's final Election Night with CBS As the pattern of history demanded, it was to be yet another long night. Given that 1976 saw the largest and most concerted emphasis on exit polling and voter analysis, all three networks had more than their fair share of material with which to "fill" during the times when the returns either slowed or had become non-issues. More and more, the networks were becoming less interested in simply how people voted and much more interested in why they voted the way they did. Pollster Lou Harris, who also joined ABC's coverage in 1976, conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews in the days and weeks leading up to election night. CBS and NBC placed a greater emphasis on interviewing voters at the polling places after they voted and asking them for whom and why. As was expected, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter pulled out to an early lead over President Gerald Ford in the Electoral Vote count, winning back some states that had not been placed into the Democratic column since 1960. As the returns from the Northeast and upper Mid-West began coming in, the margins narrowed. The outcome was, according to network reports, expected to hinge on the outcomes in two states, Mississippi (Not carried by a Democrat since 1956)and Ohio. As of 1am EST, neither state had yet to be firmly placed into either candidate's column.

ABC did not declare Mississippi for Carter until 1:36am EST. Shortly before that, the state of Texas was predicated for Carter. Ohio held out even longer...so long in fact that the race was over by the time it finally dropped into Carter's column. At 3:30am EST Wisconsin's 11 Electoral Votes were projected to go to Jimmy Carter, followed seconds later by the state of Hawaii. Combined, these two states gave Carter 272 Electoral votes and that was that. Ohio rolled in a few hours later and also went for Carter. NO MORE MYSTERIES 1976 would be the last time for 24 years that an election would make it all the way to election night with the issue still in doubt. The elections of 1980, 84, 88, 92 and 96 would all be, more or less, in the bag even before the networks signed-on for their Election Night coverage. With no close race in November and the primaries letting most of the air out of the conventions, attention to politics on television shifted more and more to debates and question-and-answer sessions. 1980 would be the last time that many of the old, familiar faces would be seen on Election Night. Walter Cronkite announced early in 1980 that he would retire from the CBS EVENING NEWS in March 1981. Dan Rather would take his place "for the next few years". Frank Reynolds, replacement anchor for Howard K. Smith in 1980, would pass away in 1983. His place would be taken by Peter Jennings and David Brinkley. John Chancellor would still be around, however, his role would switch back to what it had been in 1968 and earlier. His seat was filled by Tom Brokaw. This same, basic ensemble...with minor shuffling... would remain in place through 2004. 1980 would go down as a year that confounded, confused and surprised a great many people. Going into Election Night, former California Governor Ronald Reagan had, according to the polls, taken and held a small lead during the previous weekend. Despite this, it appeared to many that the historical pattern of "landslide" followed by "cliffhanger" was finally going to be broken. History, however, was to have the last laugh. From the moment the three networks plus 1...the newcomer being an upstart cable channel called CNN...went on the air at 7pm EST the trend became apparent. Ted Coppell joined Frank Reynolds at ABC after Howard K. Smith had bowed out of his spot at ABC in disgust. The "big board" behind the main desk was back again, however, it was now echoing a sign-ofthe -times as its readout now resembled that of an oversized digital watch. Lesley Stahl and Bruce Morton joined Cronkite, Rather and Schieffer at CBS who displayed their national returns on a television set behind "Uncle Walter's" left shoulder. (again, right on your home screen). At NBC, John Chancellor and Tom Brokaw were back but David Brinkley's participation was limited owing to ill health. Chancellor and his new partner were again separated at the main desk by a giant, Red White and Blue map of the United States, a map who's states lit up in red if won by Carter and Blue if one by Reagan. There would be little red to see this night...and for an even shorter time. Returns came in so fast and so overwhelming that NBC, in a move that would be highly criticized, projected Ronald Reagan the winner at 8:15am EST. CBS and ABC took note of this but held back on

their own similar calls for quite a while longer, CBS actually waiting until after Carte made his concession speech. The enormity of the victory took most of the on-screen personalities by surprise. CBS's Bob Schieffer perhaps summed it up best when, after rattling off a list of the demographic groups carried by Reagan, he spoke of Jimmy Carter by stating "He just got whompped!" 1980 started a trend that carried on until the year 2000. No election between 1980 and 2000 was declared a victory for either candidate later than 11pm EST. 1984 saw Ronald Reagan again declared victorious, this time during the 9pm hour. in 1988 George H.W. Bush was projected by the networks as the winner in the 10pm hour, William Jefferson Clinton in the 10pm hour in 1992 and AT 10pm in 1996. By the year 2000, it seems fair to say that many voters could not recall an election night that had lasted into the next day or even approached the Witching Hour. If these "18-to-20-somethings" were hoping for something of the "nostalgic" nature, they were about to be handed far more than they could have imagined. THE UNANTICIPATED NIGHTMARE Prior to the year 2000, the phrase "Constitutional Crisis and/or Nightmare" had been used before on Election Night. In these instances, however, the statement was used to describe one of two possible scenarios. 1. A possible, yet highly unlikely, tie in the Electoral Collage 2. An election in which a 3rd party candidate resulted in no candidate garnering 270 Electoral Votes. The 2nd of these possibilities seemed VERY possible to many commentators in 1968, leading to on-air speculation and lamentation about the abolition of the entire Electoral College system. The solution to each of the "nightmare scenarios" was to take the election into the US House of Representatives in early January of the following year. This had last happened in 1876 in what history has since dubbed "The Corrupt Bargain". It happened once before that, in 1800...the end result being a famous duel and a one-term President. Going into 2000, the closest US election, in terms of the Electoral College had occurred in 1916 when Woodrow Wilson defeated Charles Evans Hughes 277 to 254. The closest election in terms of the Popular Vote occurred in 1960, John Kennedy defeating Richard Nixon by just over 1,100,000 votes. Neither of these records would last into the 21st century. November 8, 2000 Election Night in America and, for the first time since 1976, the winner was still in doubt, the polls dead even, each man running neck and neck....or whatever other colorful metaphors you can think of. Suffice it to say, it was an "unknown" for many. By 2000, CBS, NBC and ABC had been joined in their Election Night spectacles by another broadcast network, FOX, and three cable channels devoted exclusively to news, CNN, MSNBC and the FOX NEWS CHANNEL. All 7 of them were saying that 2000 was going to be a close race, ending in a long election night...perhaps lasting until well after midnight.

The election finally did end at 10pm EST...on December 13th. To go over, step-by-step, the entire election fiasco of the year 2000 would take an article the size of a Tom Clancy Novel...and it would still be equally as unbelievable. The first 48 hours set the tone well. SIDE NOTE: Just for the sake of continuity, the giant US map was back at NBC, this time situated between Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert. The Gore states now turned blue and Bush states turned red. As had been the case since 1952, television coverage of the election returns began at either 6pm EST or 7pm EST, depending on which channel you were tuned to. The night started off deceptively simple. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw...now joined by Bernard Shaw, Britt Hume and Chris Mathews... announced that Kentucky and Indiana were being called in the winner column for Texas Governor George W. Bush. No more poles were set to close until 7pm EST, following the local and national newscasts in the eastern half of the country. The newscasts that night all had one, underling them..."keep your eyes on Florida". With 25 Electoral Votes, and governed by Governor Bush's brother Jeb, the Sunshine State was picked by most experts as the state that would tip the balance of power one way or the other. It's poles closed at 7pm EST. "Stay with us" Urged NBC's Tom Brokaw. " We are about to take you on an exciting, and bumpy ride" 7pm rolled around. Vermont was projected for Vice President Al Gore and South Carolina for Governor Bush. All networks announced that Florida was "Too close to call"....words that would soon be ringing in the ears of the nation. The next 45 minutes or so continued on as normal. Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama were declared for Governor Bush. Polls closed in Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30pm EST but neither could be called at that time. 8:00pm promised a slew of poll closing, 13 more states including Texas and Michigan. Whatever was going on behind the scene was invisible to the viewer, all he or she knew was that between 7:45pm and 9:00pm EST the state of Florida was called for Vice President Al Gore. The new, super-fast and mostly animated computer generated graphics put the numbers up and colored the digital image of Florida blue. At 8:00pm EST, the additional 13 polls closed their doors and Governor Bush's Electoral Vote lead shrunk to 11. For any voter between 18 and 24, this was totally new territory. A CLOSE election night for the first time in their lives. It was new, and it was exciting. However, unbeknownst to anyone, it was about to become surreal. Attentive viewers would have heard some "doubts" from the mouths of a few commentators over the next 110 minutes. While it may have sounded like mere political spin or just wishful thinking, some started to question the final declaration of Florida for Al Gore. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Bush Campaign strategist Karl Rove appeared on NBC's coverage between 9:30pm and 9:50pm, each openly challenging what they considered to be a premature call. By 9:50pm EST, just 4 minutes before the broadcast networks would break away for the local "cut-ins" by their affiliates, the lead in the Electoral Vote total had see-sawed 4 or 5 times, and was currently held

by Al gore, the State of Minnesota having just recently gone into his column. Most CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX stations left the national coverage to report on their local races. Less than 2 minutes after the broadcast networks cut-away, craziness erupted on the 4 cable networks. "Stand by, stand by" announced CNN's elder statesman Bernard Shaw at about 9:55pm "CNN right now is moving our early declaration of Florida back into the 'Undecided' column" "Well, what the networks giveth the networks taketh away" Quipped Tom Brokaw. "Oh waiter" Joked CNN"s Jeff Greenfield "One order of crow". What had happened? When Dan Rather came back on at 10pm EST he declared that the issue was a "Computer and data problem" and then emphasized this by joking "To err is human, to REALLY foul up requires a computer and that is what has happened here". The retraction of the Florida call was quickly followed by the calling of New Hampshire, Missouri and West Virginia for Governor Bush. By 2am EST the electoral vote had shrunk to 246 for Bush to 242 for Al Gore. Only the states of Wisconsin, Oregon and Florida remained uncalled. Television analysts like CBS's Ed Bradley and CNN's Hal Bruno reported that the vote in Florida was narrowing and that much, perhaps most, of the votes left to be counted were from the Miami-Dade area. Bush's lead in Florida slowly shrunk to 30,000 votes before suddenly jumping back up to about 52,000 votes. This sudden spike, with approximately 98% of the vote supposedly counted, apparently prompted what happened next. At 2:18am EST all broadcast and cable networks called the race in Florida, and therefore the Presidency, for Governor Bush. Minutes later, it was reported that Vice President Gore had called Governor Bush to concede the race and would soon be making an appearance in Nashville, Tenn. to deliver his concussion speech. Viewers who had stayed up late to watch history-in-the-making waited, and waited, and waited some more. Images of the crowds in Nashville and Austin...both getting soaked by rain...were shown as the networks' respective commentators and anchors "filled" as best they could. The Associated Press flashed an interesting bulletin at about 2:50am. When it was finally reported on-air by CBS's Ed Bradley, Bob Schieffer and Lesley Stahl each inhaled in shock. Rather brought his thumb and pinky finger up to his right ear as if making a phone call. "Hello 911" Rather joked "Cardiac arrest unit please". The AP had reported that there were far more uncounted votes in Florida than had been earlier estimated and that the votes remaining to be counted COULD allow Al Gore to take the lead in the state.

"There was no reason to think" said CNN's Jeff Greenfield after hearing the crowd in Nashville chanting for a recount "That this election was going to end any less bizarrely than it began. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if an unidentified spacecraft landed in Nashville and alien got and made some speech to Al Gore...it has been that kind of a night" Neither Governor Bush nor Vice President Gore would be heard from before the sun came up. Shortly before DNC head Bill Daley came out to tell Gore's supporters that the race was not over, the networks again started retracting their call of Florida and putting it back into the undecided column...it stayed there for over 40 days. History now records that there WAS a recount...in some places several...followed by weeks upon weeks of legal wrangling and court proceedings. The issue would eventually make its way to the United State's Supreme Court...twice...who determined on December 12, 2000 that no further recounting of the Florida votes was permissible under Florida's law. Just before 9pm that night, network and cable news correspondents could be seen rushing down the giant steps in front of the Supreme Court building, crumpled paper copies of the court's decision clutched in their hands. Over the next hour these same correspondents...all enduring a freezing cold night where their breath was clearly visible...reported that the election was finally over. Al Gore conceded the following night and, as per the norm, Governor Bush gave a victory statement shortly afterwards. The ways in which television reported the returns on election nights was to be forever changed. By 2004, everyone was being hyper-cautious when it came to calling a state for one candidate or another. Despite this renewed effort to put accuracy before speed, all 7 broadcast and cable networks were again thrown for a loop in the early part of their coverage, this time by flawed exit-poll number that appeared to show Senator John Kerry heading for a landslide victory. He lost both the electoral vote and the popular vote while President Bush amassed the largest popular vote total in the nation's history. 2004 would be the last election night for three long-time anchors. Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw decided to abdicate their anchor desks after 24 + years and Peter Jennings passed away on August 7, 2005. Rather would be replaced in 2008 by NBC defector Katie Couric. Brokaw's seat was filled by Brian Williams and Jenning's open spot by Charles Gibson. Over on the cable channels, Brit Hume remained in command at FOX NEWS and Chris Mathews stayed put at MSNBC but was joined by Keith Olbermann . CNN, its coverage anchored by Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper...along with a 5-person panel... made history by introducing the first ever "holographic reporters" . Compared to the previous two years, it was a short night. Barrack Obama was declared the winner just after the west coast states were called at 11pm EST. WHAT NEXT?

The lineup for 2012 will again feature both familiar and new faces. Katie Couric will not be back at the CBS desk, her place set to be filled by long-time CBS correspondent Scott Pelley. Bob Schieffer is also slated to again be back as part of the CBS team. Dan Rather is not scheduled to participate. NBC will again have Brian Williams up front, assisted by David Gregory and Today Show host Savannah Guthrie. Tom Brokaw is scheduled to make occasional appearances, making him perhaps the most elder of the elderstatesMEN present. (Barbara Walters may have a slight edge in the 'overall' category) Whether or not the giant map will return has not been announced. At CNN, Wolf Blitzer will return to his upright (standing) position in front of a bank of interactive monitors, now dubbed the "Magic Wall". John King will again be migrating between Blitzer and a 5person panel. The holograms have gone the way of the 8-track tape. Long-time television news personality Diane Sawyer will take over Charles Gibson's spot at the ABC desk, assisted by This Week host George Stephanopoulos. Barbara Walters is scheduled to appear again, her 10th election night appearance for ABC...and 11th overall. (NBC's coverage in 1968 ran into the Today Show's timeslot where Walters and Hugh Downs were hosts) Katie Couric, also now with ABC, will be keeping an eye on the social media happenings . Chris Mathews will return to the MSNBC desk along with Rachel Maddow . Britt Hume is slated to be back at FOX NEWS but this time in the role of "analyst" and not anchorman, that role set to be filled by Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly. Fox's Sheppard Smith will runs the show for the FOX broadcast network. And oh, by the way, just in case you haven't heard...it looks like it's going to be ANOTHER long night. As they say, "the more things change, the more they are the same" .