Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, November 5th, 2025:
I WATCHED SO MUCH ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE....TOO MUCH
There is a lot going on in election night coverage plans this year. MSNBC is splitting from NBC News, CNN is providing its regular coverage on the cable side, while also providing a more "relaxed" night of coverage on its new streaming news platform CNN All-Access. There are probably 50 or more independent digital-only productions and I was curious to see what worked and what didn't.
I obviously couldn't watch every independent effort, but I attempted to sample as many as I could. And on the legacy media side, I focused on the digital efforts, although I also heavily sampled the three major cable news networks. The one outlet I didn't sample which was on my radar was the Bari Weiss-centric effort on CNN All-Access. But I don't have a subscription to that and at one point decided that it likely good for my mental health not to watch Ben Shapiro weigh in the Mamdani campaign.
I watched live non-stop, flipping back-and-forth across the cable news networks, thanks to DirecTV's very useful four channel multiview. I recorded a bunch of other stuff, which I watched after the traditional broadcasts had wrapped for the night. After all of those hours of viewing, I have a couple of big takeaways.
First, the panels that featured a mix of Democratic and Republican strategists tended to be the least effective moments of the evening. CNN is heavily invested in this, but I saw it across a few networks. These panels just come down to strategists swapping increasingly angry talking points, and I don't think I learned one thing from any of the segments.
CNN's efforts were overall my least favorite. There was some solid reporting and commentary. But there is so much faux confrontation, because channel executives have decided that viral moments of arguing is going to appeal to what they refer to as "non-partisan" viewers. Even though, based on CNN's slumping ratings, there is a big difference between social media-friendly video and programming most people want to watch.
The least helpful component of CNN's news programming comes from conservative Scott Jennings, who has been encouraged to be the Baghdad Bob of the Trump Administration. Jennings isn't on CNN to provide a conservative point of view - which I don't have a problem with at all. He is on to deliver the MAGA line, no matter how ludicrous it sounds.
Take, for instance, Jennings' take on the Dem wins on Tuesday night. Which was so unhinged from reality that it prompted some laughter from other people on the set. Here is that moment from the official CNN transcript:
ANDERSON COOPER: Scott, do you think the White House should be listening?
SCOTT JENNINGS: I mean, look, these are blue states and Democrats were supposed to win. So I wouldn’t over-read it. Virginia in particular has never been a great bellwether. I don’t think a lot of folks had a lot confidence in the Virginia campaign that was run on the Republican side.
And New Jersey is New Jersey. So I would hesitate to over- read it. I don’t think the concerns you raised are legitimate political strategy concerns.
You know I think– I just want to offer condolences to Chuck Schumer. Honestly, what I’m reading here in New York City is that AOC is going to be the next senator from New York after she gets done whooping his rear end in the 2028 Democratic primary.
And for his Senate races in 2026, I see the energy in the Democratic Party tonight behind a socialists, and I see energy in Virginia, Democrats looking the other way on a violent candidate for attorney general who says he wants to murder Republicans and their children. If you think you’re getting rid of Graham Plattner in Maine now, think again.
This is a terrible night for national democratic image what is happening inside their party.
Mamdani is an avowed socialist it’s not what people say that he is it’s what he says that he has he’s now the leader of their party that’s their energy and Chuck Schumer–.
ANDERSON COOPER: He’s the leader of the democratic party?
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT JENNINGS: He’s he’s– There is no– who is the leader? Can someone tell me?
DAVID AXELROD: So he’s a life raft for Republicans who have to go on TV and got their asses kicked today is what he is.
(LAUGHTER)
The Fox News Channel election coverage took a predictable "Dems are electing socialists" stance, but there were a number of moments that felt disconnected from what happened in this election. For instance, Sean Hannity spent a segment complaining that he didn't understand why voters didn't care about the high tax rates in New York City and New Jersey. He spoke again about how great Florida is for high-income Americans, and seemed genuinely perplexed that it didn't matter to voters. But if you are a voter struggling to pay the pills, your tax rate is the least of your problems.
MSNBC's problem was that they had entirely too much going on. It seems as if every anchor from the network's afternoon, primetime and late night programs made an appearance at some point, and it often changed from segment to segment. They tried to mitigate this a bit in previous election coverage by sending some anchors off to do stand-alone interviews. But the network still doesn't have a handle on the chaos. One of the consequences of that non-stop turnover is that it turns Rachel Maddow into an on-air air traffic controller, which certainly doesn't play to her strengths.
One highlight of MSNBC's coverage was Chris Hayes, who had a strong handle on the nuances of the night's events. If I were running the network, I would have Chris Hayes team up with Alex Wagner to do a YouTube-only broadcast next November, helped with some other network personalities who won't appear on the cable TV presentation. It would help reduce the congestion on MSNBC and provide a real alternative for viewers.
On the digital-only side, I checked out a few independent efforts, with mixed results.
Former CNN reporter Chris Cillizza and former NBC anchor Chuck Todd teamed with The Decision Desk to provide a live election night webcast and for me, it was an interesting effort, although not always successful. Cillizza and Todd have a comfortable rapport and a lot of institutional knowledge which helps with an effort like this one. They had access to the latest results via The Decision Desk and they cycled through a number of guest voices. But the webcast was often casual to the point of being boring. And given that the two men have a very specific point of view about the state of American politics, I would have liked to have seen them bring in more opposing voices. And while I missed who delivered the line, I appreciated the comment "Politics is a pendulum. And the pendulum always wins."
The biggest problem might have been the number of viewers. I checked in regularly through the night and I never saw more than 1,000 concurrent viewers. Which probably isn't enough to justify a similar effort next November without some additional partnerships and tweaks to the format.
I am a big fan of what Madhi Hasan has built at Zeteo and was looking forward to seeing what their election night coverage looked like. I checked in a few times throughout the evening and the biggest problem seemed to be technical. Some of the live video was so grainy it might have been shot from space and the quality of the audio wasn't much better. Maybe I just caught them at a bad time. But one core thing you have to deliver if you are doing digital-only election night coverage is a comfortable viewing experience.
I checked out a few of the local New York City-centric live webcasts, and once again my favorite was the one from the Hell Gate web site. Yes, the anchor desk and set resemble the presentation you'd see on a fancy high-school AV Club show and things can sometimes be a bit clunky. But it was fun to watch and it was also hyper-local, which is just want you want to see from a local independent news organization.
I think my overall favorite coverage of the night came from NBC News Now, NBC's streaming news service. While it was the new home for Steve Kornacki's election night poll coverage, that wasn't something that seemed to have been promoted much to the general public. So I spent much of my social media time on Tuesday night letting people who missed the Kornacki experience know where they could find him.
The NBC News Now coverage started off slowly. The first hour was anchored by Tom Llamas, and it was a very safe, standard presentation. There was a segment with a panel of partisan strategists bickering and interviews where Llamas leaned into conventional wisdom complaints about Mamdani in a way that felt as if he was reading off a bunch of talking points he needed to get through somehow.
Hour two changed for the better, with Kristen Welker anchoring with help from Hallie Jackson. And as the results began to come in, Steve Kornacki became a bigger part of the proceedings. It took Welker some time to settle in and early on, some of the interviews - such as the one with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries - were no different than the comments he has given for the past month on other outlets. But as the evening progressed, things loosened up and other guests came in to contribute. The biggest ongoing clunker was Republican strategist Hogan Gidley, who argued the election results weren't a reflection on Donald Trump, since polling suggested voters cared primarily about the economy, and both prices and inflation had gone down during the Trump Administration. Although Gidley did deliver one of my favorite quips of the night, when he said that he was surprised Cuomo didn't do better with voters under 45, "because that picture you have of him looks like it's from the 80s." Honestly, I would have been happy to watch an hour of just Welker, Jackson and Kornacki.
But my favorite part of the NBC News Now coverage - and honestly, my favorite part of any network's coverage - came later in the evening when a rotating panel sat around a table podcast-style talking about the night's events and answering questions viewers submitted via YouTube. It was informative, relaxed and it made me realize that this lively, yet still non-partisan conversation was what I had been looking for all night.
After watching all of this coverage from Tuesday's elections, I am really looking forward to seeing what improvements roll out next for next November's elections.
ODDS AND SODS
* Paramount has inked a new five-year media rights agreement to make Paramount+ the primary streaming home of PBR's (Professional Bull Riders) tour Unleash The Beast starting in the 2026 season.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH:
* Expedition Files Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Expedition Unknown Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Heweliusz (Netflix)
* Just Alice Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Manipulated Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Tournament Of Champions: All-Star Christmas (Food Network)
* Tyler Perry's Finding Joy (Prime Video)
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH:
* Alex Vs ARod (HBO)
* All Her Fault Series Premiere (Peacock)
* Death By Lightning (Netflix)
* Love + War (NatGeo)
* My Mother Looked Just Like You (LMN)
* The Bad Guys: Breaking In Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Basement: A Vanishing In Apple Valley (Sundance Now)
* The Vince Staples Show Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Unicorn Academy: Winter Solstice (Netflix)
* Wicked: One Wonderful Night (NBC)
SEE YOU EARLY THURSDAY MORNING!