Your Guide to Election Night

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it all comes down to this. Tuesday night it all goes down. The polls will close at night, and then the fun begins - analysts and pundits on every single television station in mankind will be projecting which candidate wins each state, talking about the scenarios for victory, and discussing the news as it happens.

But after you have voted (and you must vote - please), you have another choice to make: Who to watch when the sun goes down.

There are a lot of options on television for Tuesday night viewing, but which should you watch? Here is a guide to election night television viewing.


They refer to themselves as "the best political team on television," and that may just be the case. Just as they have all throughout the election cycle, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper will anchor the wall-to-wall coverage. They will have at their disposal the likes of Donna Brazille, John King, Alex Castellanos, James Carville, Paul Begala - the list goes on.

CNN will likely provide the most centrist analysis of the election night results. That is, the balance of Democratic and Republican commentators balances out the analysis, and both Blitzer and Cooper will make sure the network does not appear biased in its coverage. One thing CNN has done particularly well throughout the election cycle is that is has been able to give an air of unbiasedness. If you don't want to hear any ugly partisan banter, CNN is probably your channel.


Oh, and you can rest assured: John King and his magical telestrator will be there. Everyone who is in awe every time you look at the voting results in the third largest county of southern Mississippi will get that opportunity to "ooh" and "aah" yet again.



Are you a right-leaning fellow? Then this is your station. There's no denying FOX's coverage has a little bit of slant in it, but if you don't mind, then tune in to this channel for your results viewing. Plus, FOX's web site is going to have a live-updated election map that allows you to look at each specific county in each state. So if you want to be John King and impress your friends with county-level knowledge, check out FOX's site.

Or, if you're a left-leaning kind of person, Keith Olberman and Co. is your ticket to election night fun. They will have a whole host of stars to break down the news, just as FOX will. MSNBC also has a "Decision '08" election night widget, which allows you to follow the results live on your desktop.



But if you really want to get some fun out of your election night coverage, there's only one place to turn: Comedy Central. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will host a live one-hour election night special on the network to talk about the results and the prognostications. The show kicks off at 10 pm Eastern Time/7 pm Pacific Time, and promises to be chock full of jokes, jests and funny quips.