Networks roll out their news stars, high tech for Election Night coverage

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-3  |     ONLINE EDITION

FOR US television news organizations, Election Night is like the Super Bowl -- the year's best chance to show off their talent and technological innovations.

Tomorrow will see holograms and virtual reality, a "magic wall" and a "launchpad," and two New York City landmarks -- Rockefeller Center and Times Square -- turned into TV studios.

NBC News will imprint a map of the United States on the Rockefeller Center skating rink, turning states blue or red as they are called for Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain. Giant banners for each candidate will climb 16 stories up 30 Rockefeller Plaza, marking the progress to 270 electoral votes.

Three giant video screens put in place by ABC News will loom over Times Square, where Bill Weir will be stationed to get the reaction of people watching the vote.

"We wanted the scale and scope of the coverage to match the moment, to match the interest and enthusiasm that we have been seeing from the public," said David Chalian, ABC News political director.

Election Night is one of the very few remaining events where broadcast news divisions know they will have prime time to themselves. The competition among ABC, CBS and NBC is intense. The cable networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC -- whose business every night is news -- approach equal footing now. And they are not the only choices viewers have.

Besides providing up-to-date information, networks feel pressure just to catch someone's eye.

One important lesson about this came in 1976, when NBC built a giant map of the country as a backdrop in their studio. The states were lit in white, and were turned red if Democrat Jimmy Carter won, blue if they backed Republican Gerald Ford. After some early glitches -- the plastic Georgia almost melted from a hot light in rehearsal -- the map became an instant hit.