US ELECTIONS 2020 Coverage

Now that the BBC have launched their new studio, as well as CNN having launched their 2020 US Election revamp (albeit lame) along with other domestic networks - this is the place to discuss all things related to the up coming super important US Presidential election.

I'll be interested to see how everyone is going to be setup with social distancing still in place for the election including CNN. Normally they are in the election centre (Which I imagine they could still use) and the Washington studio where Anderson Cooper has a massive panel alongside him but it's clear the big panel won't happen with social distancing.

As for the UK broadcasters. I think it'll probably be a hybrid setup between coverage from the US and the UK as they probably don't want to stretch resources there.

It will be interesting to see how UK broadcasters operate. I really can't see why it cannot be done at least partly from London.

It would be nice to see the GMB set used for the itv election night. As we saw with the Stephen Lawrence debate you can get a huge desk in there with multiple guests. I doubt this would ever happen/ be possible because obviously GMB would be on from 6am and usually it’s just a handover from itv news to GMB.

My guess is that BBC will rely on CBS reporters and Sky will rely on NBC reporters in certain states. Do ITN still have a US news affiliate?

Meanwhile in the big states - New York, Texas, California, Florida, etc (along with DC) they will have their own reporters.

I don't know if the BBC will also have access to PBS or CSPAN reporters (I know last election Parliament broadcast CSPAN's coverage as an alternative)

As I'm sure you know, each party usually holds a massive convention of delegates to formally nominate their presidential candidate. Due to the virus, this year totally virtual conventions are taking place. This seems to have posed a bit of a challenge for the broadcasters as they are simply given a 2-hour party-produced feed to show (although it seems that content and timings have also been provided). In the past, the broadcasters would typically have talking head analysis for hours with speeches then taken live, dipping out of the other party promotional content. This year the condensed content seems to be mostly taken in full.

I've taken a few grabs of the coverage of the DNC virtual convention (so far). I've put in spoiler tags as quite a few images.

CNN is the easiest for me to stream, so I'll start with them:



I dipped in and out of NBC/MSNBC at different times. Someone might be able to clarify if they are showing separate programmes on the broadcast network and cable channel. Either way, the look and feel is the same:



A tricky event politically for Fox News , they went with Hannity for half of the programme (who talks about other issues, then he cuts in when there is someone he wants to get annoyed with). Last night he was arguing with a pre-recorded speech from Bill Clinton, talking all over it, in a truly bizarre rant:

Elsewhere, this was ABC News :


CBS News:


PBS NewsHour:


C-SPAN:

Re: CNN - was Wolf the only person in the studio?

That Washington Election set takes a lot of camera operators, floor crew as it's so vast once all the walls are opened.

Wolf walks around, Tapper and Bash have their desk, John King is right behind them at the Magic Wall. Anderson has either the panel desk which seats 8, or the two red Daleks and stands in-between them.

From the caps above it seems Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Abby Philips are all in flash studios with Wolf at the large curved perspex desk. Anderson conducted his panel from NYC.

Might be far easier to use several studios at Hudson Yards, at least then social distancing can be properly implemented.

Sorry for posting three times in a row, but I forgot to add that the DNC-produced roll call of delegates (where each state pledges a number of delegates for each prospective candidate) had a bit of a Eurovision Song Contest feel about it. Even more so when the TV networks added a running total on their graphics.



It's all done for show, but was more interesting than the usual passing a mic around the convention floor.

I think Wolf was the only one in the Washington Studio. I don't know where John King was when he was at the touchscreen, he was at a large studio but I don't whether that was at the election centre or another studio. John King was at the Washington studio when he was doing the midday ET time shift.

Wolf was solo in his position. From the background, it looks like the other Washington DC contributors might have also been in the same studio at a different desk, and then shoved into graphic boxes (as they like to do). There are far fewer wide shots etc. so I think the crew on site must still be very limited.

I noticed Dana Bash later spoke from a Washington DC newsroom position which seems new.

They also tweaked the background for Anderson Cooper last night, the distracting map behind him is gone:



They must be saving a fortune not having the on-location CNN Grills this time round...

Groan. CNN still haven't got rid of the Photoshop monkey from the last US election, who somehow made actual photos of Trump and Clinton look like computer generated ones, by bleaching teeth, adding pointless light spots and shades, adding volume to hair and smoothing out wrinkles to the point of making them look 20 years younger.

Biden looks like he's one of those actors they dredge up for a overlit advertisement for laxative tablets.