TV's news stars, gizmos align for Election Night

CNN has its own new technology, following the "magic wall" that allows John King to bend and shape information — and was parodied recently on "Saturday Night Live." It will have a virtual-reality Capitol to track control of Congress, and a holograph projection device that can make it appear someone being interviewed in a separate city is in CNN's New York studio.

"It might open up a different dynamic in a live interview, if people would feel like they're in the same room," said David Bohrman, CNN senior vice president and Washington bureau chief.

As if CNN already won't have enough people in the studio — 14 analysts alone, not counting reporters or the anchor team of Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown.

David Gregory will anchor the MSNBC coverage, trying to get a word in edgewise with the team of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson. Curry, looking at exit poll information, and Todd, crunching the numbers, will do double duty on NBC and MSNBC.

Jim Lehrer leads the PBS team. Lest you think PBS will be stodgy, note that its correspondents will be posting reports on Twitter.

More specialized outlets will also be following Election Night, like the business networks CNBC and Fox Business Network. It's an opportunity for fledgling Fox, which has seen the economic crisis as a chance to establish itself much like the Monica Lewinsky scandal helped establish Fox News Channel a decade ago, said Neil Cavuto, senior vice president and managing editor of the network.

Fox Business Network will keep track of the overseas markets as election results come in, report on the probable economic policies of the incoming administration and hear from guests like Steve Forbes and Donald Trump.

"We're going all-out," Cavuto said.

Two networks aimed at African-Americans, BET and TV One, will also be providing special coverage on a night that could see the election of the first black president. Univision, the nation's leading network for Spanish-speaking viewers, will also have Election Night coverage.

And if the night is getting too serious, there's always Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's live one-hour special on Comedy Central, at 10 p.m. EDT.

No "magic wall" is promised.

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