Election supersizes its TV finale
A nail-biter that left many a talking head stunned, Election Night 2016 proved too big for TV's prime time. And a puzzle not just for the pundits, but for comedians Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah, whose live election-night specials began at 11 p.m. with far less certainty about the next president than they appeared to have expected.
A nail-biter that left many a talking head stunned, Election Night 2016 proved too big for TV's prime time.
And a puzzle not just for the pundits, but for comedians Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah, whose live election-night specials began at 11 p.m. with far less certainty about the next president than they appeared to have expected.
"I cannot understand how Trump's candidacy even got this far," said Colbert, the host of CBS's Late Show, who had moved to Showtime for what was billed by the premium cable network as "the perfect election night destination for people who want to see all the latest news, without actually having to watch the news."
There to explain it: The actor Jeff Goldblum, channeling his Jurassic Park character with an explanation that appeared to be likening Donald Trump to a dinosaur that could crash through barriers.
Chances are, not everyone was laughing, and Colbert, getting in touch with his inner grown-up, struck a more philosophical note as midnight passed, talking about still feeling lucky to have been able to vote.
"We're all going to be here together . . . however you feel," he said.
On Noah's Comedy Central Daily Show special, "Democalypse 2016," MTV senior political Ana Marie Cox tried to explain to Noah how so many polls could have been so wrong in terms of "missing white men," and the host tried to draw an analogy to the White Walkers of HBO's Game of Thrones.
Cox didn't seem to find that funny.
But then it had already been a long night.
"You're either opening a second bottle of wine or making a new pot of coffee," said CBS News' Norah O'Donnell shortly after 10 p.m., as she began a litany of what were then still-too-close-to-call states.
As some of those states began to be called and Trump's chances of beating Hillary Clinton continued to increase, anchors and analysts struggled to explain developments most hadn't predicted.
On Fox News, contributor Brit Hume appeared slightly aghast as he quoted the New York Times and FiveThirtyEight.com, both of which had shifted in their forecasts to favor a Trump victory, and anchor Megyn Kelly talked about what that would mean both for Trump's supporters and for as much as half the country, which, she said, was "terrified" of him.
Some highlights and lowlights of a long night of television:
Drinking-game phrases that would have left players drunk: Bellwether county, blue wall, historic night, path to victory.
Drinking "Pantsuit Punch" while the electoral map burned redder and redder: The women of ABC's The View, whose festive Lifetime election-night special seemed particularly out of step with news coverage as the night wore on. (Let's not do this again, shall we?)
Color wars: On a day when some women made a point of wearing white - as Clinton often has in honor of the suffragists who fought for women's right to vote - CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers and CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash were both in white - but then, so was Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany (whose dress' waist, in fairness, sported black polka dots).
On Fox News, Kelly was in black - wearing a top with cold shoulder - as was The Five's Kimberly Guilfoyle. Fox News' Dana Perino was in white, along with national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, who was posted at Clinton headquarters. Also sporting white: NBC's Savannah Guthrie.
Analog vs. digital: In the battle of the high-tech bells and whistles, Karl Rove's insistence on sticking with his little white boards on Fox News helped him once again stand out. Still, no one works a magic map wall like CNN's John King, who managed to make the graphics behave while patiently answering Wolf Blitzer's questions.
Speaking of bells and whistles: Fox News' Kelly, making mild fun of her network's giant outdoor graphic, asked: "Remember when Times Square used to be full of exotic dancers? . . . Now it's electoral maps."
Full-service anchors: A Fox News discussion Tuesday afternoon between anchor Shepard Smith and Fox Business host Kennedy about third-party candidates ended with Kennedy saying she'd love to see something "on a plate at Del Frisco's," an apparent reference to the steak house near the network's New York headquarters.
"Anything on a plate at Del Frisco's," replied Smith, who, before breaking for commercial, advised, "Get the lemon cake."
Standout statistic: Everybody talked about demographic changes, but it was ABC News' Martha Raddatz who reported that the majority of the U.S. toddler population is now nonwhite.
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