Prime Video took over a stage in Los Angeles on Tuesday for its first live election special, but despite the ample space and technology on display, the broadcast hours didn't seem much different from the multitude of other election night options.
Election evening live began with host Brian Williams delivering a voiceover addressed to the Founding Fathers, emphasizing what they established for the nation (along with the fact that many of them were slave owners) while asking for “the strength and wisdom to find the our way through this situation.”
The special originated from a volume stage (the same type of high-tech structure used in shows such as The Mandalorian). Most of the time, a series of images from across the country were projected behind Williams, with a huge swooping “Live News Alert” banner taking over the screens when there was a result to report.
The special did a lot of run-up before the results came in, laying out the issues at stake and how groups of voters might lean for a full two hours (the bane of any election night broadcast is filling the time before and between the news and the other). of the voting results). The show featured two panels of experts: Abby Huntsman, Baratunde Thurston, political strategists James Carville and Mike Murphy, former Trump press assistant Erin Perrine, and historian Douglas Brinkley behind a long table (which Williams addressed most often in prime time) and reporter Jessica Yellin converses in a lounge area with former CNN correspondent Candy Crowley, former Trump aides Kristin Davison and Sarah Matthews, and former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.
Erin McPike, a former journalist and political consultant (but currently a public affairs executive at Meta) ran the electoral map. Shepard Smith was at Harris headquarters, and the New York Post'Lydia Moynihan was at Trump headquarters. DiscoTara Palmeri, who covered Trump's campaign, was in the studio and told Williams that she had had her credentials stripped from election night festivities. (All three were absent for several hours after their pre-match presentations.)
Williams also noted that the operation had no decision-making office and would report when other news outlets made calls. He did so, taking note of reports from CNN and his old home at MSNBC, but it wasn't clear what Prime Video was using for its state appeals to Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Overall, he appeared to be cautious about calling states — even though Williams announced that reliably Democratic states like Illinois and New York would go to Harris, those projections weren't accepted. This mirrored some other news organizations, including ABC, CBS and MSNBC, while Fox News, The New York Times AND The Washington Post they were quicker to put states' electoral votes in both columns.
What there wasn't, at least in the first few hours, was a strong disagreement between the speakers. Everyone spoke in turns and there wasn't much exchange between the speakers. Williams may have set the tone for this, stating early on that the political consensus in the country was “dead, gone, buried, done, dusted” and praising the bygone days of bipartisanship.
In this and other aspects, Election evening live it was largely Williams' show, however, as the former NBC and MSNBC host dominated screen time and gave remote interviews with officials and reporters, including former Sen. Al Franken, Don Lemon , New York Rep. Ritchie Torres and others. Huntsman managed a couple and Yellin very few.