Ed O’Keefe, Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson and Margaret Brennan.Photo: Michael Greenberg/CBS News
In the field of journalism, no event is bigger than election night. While most Americans spent the past weekwatching the World Seriesordoom-scrolling Twitter, the all-star team at CBS News hunkered down in windowless rooms to put months of preparation to the test.
“We are ready for everything and anything on CBS,” saysCBS Morningsco-hostGayle King, one of several on-air reporters who’ve sat through hours of rehearsals to prepare for the big day. “It takes an army. I like to say we have a whole battalion — and the village too. We are pulling out all the stops.”
King will sit at CBS News' anchor desk in New York City on Tuesday night, alongsideCBS Evening News’Norah O’Donnell,Face the Nation’sMargaret BrennanandPrime Time’sJohn Dickerson. Chief White House correspondentNancy Cordes, senior White House and political correspondentEd O’Keefeand chief election and campaign correspondentRobert Costawill take turns occupying the fifth seat at the anchor desk.
“I think one of the things that makes CBS News' coverage distinct is that all of our anchors have a background in political reporting,” says O’Donnell, who has covered every election since 1996 and will lead the team of on-air talent through the broadcast.
O’Donnell notes that anchors on the network’s various news programs also “spend a lot of time out in the field,” giving them a better sense of how they can guide conversation when they call on other election units in the New York and D.C. studios — and reporters at CBS' 14 local stations around the country.
Michael Greenberg/CBS News
During PEOPLE’s walk-through on Friday, the room was already bustling for rehearsals.
Duthiers has an advantage covering the elections, because he spends several hours on the air each day covering midterm news bumps — “I’m not coming into this cold” — but that doesn’t mean he plans to sit back and wing it.
“I’ve been sitting in a room with my producer and the exit poll team, talking about the issues that they’re going to be asking the voters in exit polls,” Duthiers tells PEOPLE, “so that I understand them, that I understand the historical nature of those issues, the historical nature of how people have voted in the past for Democrats or Republicans, and then when it comes to particular candidates, understanding where they stand on the issue.”
CBS News' exit poll data will not only give viewers an idea of how races are poised to swing, but will help explain why voters made their choices. “From understanding the answers that the voters give us, we can sort of build a picture,” Duthiers says. “And that gives us an insight into their hearts and their minds.”
In the midst ofwidespread election denialthat’s trickled over from the 2020 presidential race, CBS News will debut what it calls the Democracy Desk on Tuesday evening, seating chief justice and homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues, election law contributor David Becker and congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane.
The three, also stationed in CBS News' New York City election headquarters, will be analyzing conflicts at polling stations, state efforts to make the vote-counting process more transparent, and how fallout fromthe Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riotsplays a role in the outcome of Tuesday’s elections.
A few feet to their side sits the Election Data Desk, where viewers will watch chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, surveys executive director Anthony Salvanto and the rest of the decision team crunch numbers and call races in live time.
“I think what sets us apart is the commitment to news and not noise,” says Brennan, who brings a wealth of knowledge she’s gleaned fromFace the Nationinterviews to the table. “We will offer clear, transparent, and down-the-middle reporting and context. And we also have extensive data to help illuminate what’s motivating voters.”
Brennan and Salvanto have taken a particular interest in four demographics that they believe will play a significant role in election outcomes: pressured parents, women committed to restoringRoe v. Wade, firm Trump followers, and childless voters under 30. Through focus groups and polling, they have grown to understand these groups very well, and will be calling upon their discoveries as they interpret election night results.
Norah O’Donnell.Michael Greenberg/CBS News
Efforts to organize CBS News' ambitious 2022 election broadcast began to seriously pick up in January under the leadership of David Reiter, executive producer of special events, and Mary Hager, executive producer ofFace the Nationwho is serving as the executive editor for Tuesday’s broadcast.
“I think that the enthusiasm and the very solemn, important challenge that we all face is just making sure that we can really make a difference with our coverage on election night,” Hager says. “We want viewers to really feel that they’ve learned something.”
Hager calls the mission to plan for election night “enormous, immense and unbelievable.” She and Reiter thought of every possible storyline and election outcome that would need to be prepared so that it could funnel through the control room on a moment’s notice. Most of the packages that the news team has spent the better part of a year preparing will never make it to air.
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The entire CBS News team is ready to stay on the air as long as it takes, anticipating that the broadcast will last until around 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning.
“The last election, I actually slept here at the studio,” King says, adding that she wore the same dress on camera two days in a row. “I thought I’d be able to go home and change and bathe, but the way that election took out last time, we didn’t have the results. So I ended up laying on the green room couch for maybe 20 minutes or so.”
“Election night is like my Super Bowl,” O’Donnell says. “Even though it’s a lot of preparation, I enjoy every second of it.”
CBS News’America Decides: Campaign ‘22election night special begins at 5 p.m. ET on streaming, and broadcast television from 8-11 p.m. ET, or longer for some stations. Coverage will continue throughout the evening until 2 a.m., live across all time zones.
Check your voter registration, locate your polling place, and make a voting plan atVote.orgto ensure that your voice is heard this election season.
source: people.com
