TV Newser went behind the scenes at CNN on election night and spoke to CNN political director Sam Feist. Video of their chat is below.

Austin Carr from FastCompany.com also visited CNN's Election Center and has a write-up and photos here. (h/t: ICN)


Inside Cable News blogs about CNN's much hyped "Election Matrix", and an unresolved technical issue he spotted as early as last week.

"I’m not going to wait any longer to give CNN’s Election Matrix a colossal thumbs down. I’m not giving it a thumbs down because it isn’t an interesting idea or because the information is not being presented in an interesting way. No, I’m giving it a thumbs down because the system used to generate it has more bugs than a bait store and it clearly is not ready for use."

On TV, CNN's election night coverage came second (behind Fox News). The numbers below are from TV by the numbers.

8-11p ET (P2+)
MSNBC - 1,945,000
CNN - 2,423,000
FNC - 6,957,000

8-11p ET (25-54)
MSNBC - 669,000
CNN - 1,030,000
FNC - 2,431,000


Meanwhile, CNN.com continued its dominance and recorded its highest traffic day of the year to date.

CNN Press Release: CNN.com Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Omniture)

* With nearly 80 million page views on Election Day, CNN.com experienced the highest traffic day of the year, and was up 61% over the prior 4-week average.
* CNN.com attracted 11.2 million unique visitors to the site, up 26% over the prior 4-week average and up 10% over the 2006 Midterm Elections day with more than
* Live video plays on the site were also up dramatically over the prior 4-week average with nearly a quarter million views, a 400% plus gain.
* CNN’s Politics Section was up nearly 100% over the prior 4-week average with more than 25 million page views.
* CNN’s politics blog (The Political Ticker) was up 62% over the prior 4-week average with more than 2 million views

CNN Mobile Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Bango)

* CNN Mobile proved valuable to millions of consumers seeking politics information on Election Day 2010, with more than 2.2 million unique visitors, a 30% increase over the prior 4-week average.
* Mobile web page views on Tuesday were also up 42% over the 4-week average with 7.3 million

CNN Pressroom - CNN’s political team will report live from the CNN Election Center and across Kentucky and Oregon as returns from those key states come in on Tuesday, May 20. CNN correspondents and analysts will be on-hand throughout the day to report the results and what it means for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

CNN’s special prime-time programming will begin at 7 p.m., following wall-to-wall politics on The Situation Room, and will run late into the night. Lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will direct the coverage and will be joined by anchors Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper and Lou Dobbs. CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien and senior political analyst Bill Schneider will review exit poll data. Chief national correspondent John King will again provide in-depth, Kentucky- and Oregon-specific data and analysis using the CNN “multi-touch” board, which makes complex demographic and delegate data more understandable and accessible.

The coverage will lead into a special edition of Larry King Live at midnight hosted by Larry King. American Morning with John Roberts and Kyra Phillips will be live the following morning at a special time from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

In the lead-up to Tuesday, CNN’s correspondents are traveling across Kentucky and Oregon to cover the race. Candy Crowley, Suzanne Malveaux and Jessica Yellin are covering Clinton and Obama as they make their last-minute appeals to the voters. Jim Acosta and Dan Lothian will provide live reports from the trail, and Dana Bash will be covering Sen. John McCain.

Gloria Borger, senior political analyst; David Gergen, senior political analyst; and Jeff Toobin, legal analyst, will be on-hand with their insights. CNN’s nationally known contributors, Paul Begala, Bill Bennett, Donna Brazile and Roland Martin, will provide commentary, as will CNN’s newest political contributor Tony Snow. Also joining them will be commentators Alex Castellanos, Leslie Sanchez and Jamal Simmons.

Additionally, the CNN Election Express bus will make its way through Kentucky and remain in Frankfort, Ky., for the primary. Ballot Bowl will air live from that state and Oregon over the weekend.

CNN will offer up-to-the minute reporting and analysis at CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN Political Ticker at www.CNN.com/ticker. CNN.com Live will provide coverage of the primary results starting at 7 p.m.

CNN Radio correspondent Ed McCarthy will anchor regular live special reports on May 20 from 6:15 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. CNN Radio correspondent Lisa Desjardins, reporting from Oregon will offer first-hand observations for the network and for affiliates worldwide. CNN Newsource will provide its affiliates access to on-site reports from RunningMate correspondent Samantha Hayes.

Each month in 2008, CNN Student News will be “Talking Democracy” by introducing an election-year topic in the show and online. From caucus to convention and primary to poll, CNN Student News will break down these election-year concepts. Teachers, parents and students can find the CNN Student News program and its curriculum materials online at www.CNNStudentNews.com and on Headline News from Monday through Friday at 4 a.m. (ET).
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Pressroom - Best Political Team to Provide Round-Up of Campaign News for 8 p.m. Hour

CNN starting today will dedicate the 8 p.m. hour each weekday to the latest election news coverage from the campaign trail in a new program, CNN Election Center. Building on CNN’s successes and ratings wins from both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, CNN Election Center will be anchored by members of the “Best Political Team on Television” from the New York-based CNN Election Center and on the trail by CNN anchor John Roberts.

The program combines CNN’s unrivaled field reporting and analysis with all of the technology that CNN demonstrated on recent primary election nights. Each evening, CNN will report on substantive issues of concern to the American people with policy-oriented questions that will go beyond the minutia of the horse race and Beltway conventions.

For CNN Election Center, Roberts will anchor live from the field as candidates circulate through Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and California as the Super Tuesday primaries approach. In New York, a rotating slate of anchors, including Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Lou Dobbs, John King and Soledad O’Brien, will anchor from the CNN Election Center. Cooper and Roberts will co-anchor the program’s debut edition.

“CNN will offer the electricity of Election Night every night at 8,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “The Best Political Team on Television will provide unmatched insight and inside information and will give viewers what they want the most: less horse race coverage and more of the candidates talking about what they would do as president.”

CNN Election Center will air each weekday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. through the week of Super Tuesday. All times Eastern. The program also serves as a television companion to CNN.com’s Election Center available at http://www.CNN.com/ELECTION/

Joining the program from the trail will be CNN’s Emmy Award-winning political team with Dana Bash, John King and Mary Snow covering the Republican candidates, and Candy Crowley, Suzanne Malveaux and Jessica Yellin reporting on the Democrats. Also out on the campaign trail will be CNN correspondents Jim Acosta, Tom Foreman, Joe Johns, Chris Lawrence and Dan Lothian. Gloria Borger; senior political analyst; Jack Cafferty, commentator; David Gergen, senior political analyst; Bill Schneider, senior political analyst; and Jeff Toobin, legal analyst; will also contribute to the program along with CNN’s nationally known contributors Bill Bennett, Carl Bernstein, Donna Brazile and Roland Martin.

Jeff Kepnes serves as executive producer for CNN Election Center.

Through 2007 and continuing this year, CNN’s election programming has resonated with viewers who have made the network and CNN.com their source for politics. Two of CNN’s primary debates – the CNN/YouTube Republican debate and the Democratic debate in Las Vegas – stand as the two highest-rated primary debates in cable news history. CNN’s coverage of the Iowa caucuses topped the competition in the youngest demographics, while its New Hampshire primary coverage won across all demographics including total viewers.

An extra hour of Lou Dobbs Tonight will preempt CNN Election Center on Tuesday, Jan. 15, the day of the Michigan primary, with Lou Dobbs Tonight airing from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., followed by a Lou Dobbs Tonight Special Report, “Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit,’ airing from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. For the special report, Dobbs and guest contributors offer expert reporting and analysis on the politics of today as they tear down traditional thinking about politics by approaching the issues from neither the left or the right but independently.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.