Streamers take on TV networks on midterm election night in what one executive calls 'the content creator election'

On Tuesday's US midterm election night, for the first time in more than 20 years, Jim Acosta will not be working for a mainstream television network. Acosta, a familiar CNN face for nearly 18 years, left the network last year. This time he is putting on his own live broadcast at the University of Virginia, which will air on YouTube and his Substack platform. The broadcast is hosted by the university's Center for Politics.

Joining Acosta for the broadcast will be another star of linear television, Katie Couric, a former Today show co-host. Don Lemon, another CNN alum now active in new media, may also drop by, Acosta said. He said the broadcast will deliver for viewers looking for fresh faces and a different way of doing election coverage. He will give analysis using an interactive touchscreen battleground map in the style of NBC News data analyst Steve Kornacki.

Rashida Jones, chief executive of Piers Morgan's media company Uncensored, predicted that Tuesday's midterms will come to be remembered as 'the content creator election', when independent journalists hosting streaming broadcasts give traditional networks a run for their money. Jones ran MSNBC, now called MS Now, during the 2024 presidential election, a role she held for four years. Morgan's 'Piers Morgan Uncensored' streaming broadcast has about 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube. On election night Morgan will host a several-hour live show from Washington DC, part of a three-day stint broadcasting from the US capital.

Jones said traditional television networks will be facing more competition than in past election cycles. A network that has a presenter at a board and a ticker at the bottom cannot assume people will simply come, she said. Her company's broadcast will focus on the big-picture themes and takeaways, because by the end of the night people care about where the results landed.

Scott MacFarlane, a veteran reporter who resigned from CBS News in March seeking 'some independence', has joined the progressive MeidasTouch network as its chief Washington correspondent and will co-host its live election broadcast. MacFarlane said the streaming show will lack the bells and whistles of a traditional television election broadcast: there will be no teleprompters and no scripts, and it will be direct, conversational and heavy on original reporting. Dramatic theme music and theatrical presentations would miss the moment, he added.

Still, many millions of Americans will watch a traditional television network, or its streaming offshoot, to keep tabs on the elections. On election night 2024, an estimated 42.3 million viewers watched television coverage, though viewership is lower in non-presidential years. NBC News anchor Hallie Jackson is pencilled in for nine hours of live coverage, alongside Savannah Guthrie, Tom Llamas and Kristen Welker behind the desk, along with Kornacki. Jackson said there is no place with the depth, scope and breadth that NBC News has.

Seni Tienabeso, vice-president of ABC News Live and Specialized Units, said the network has planned a seven-hour broadcast, but it could go much longer if a key call, perhaps for control of the US Senate or House, is on the horizon. ABC News relies on election results from the Associated Press, as well as a new voter survey by the polling firm SSRS. Tienabeso said the decision desk is holed off from the rest of the newsroom and does not pay attention to what competitors are doing; it makes the call when it feels comfortable with its analysis.

On Tuesday, CNN viewers will be able to see the network's decision desk in action and will have access to a new tool called CNN Sightline, which gives insights into how a contest is leaning, based on data and demographics. David Chalian, CNN's political director and Washington bureau chief, said it is probably more transparency than the network has ever had. CNN's decision desk makes calls when it has at least 99.5 percent confidence that a certain candidate will win; speed is not part of that at all, he said.

Chris Stirewalt, political editor for the cable network NewsNation, was part of Fox News' decision desk for several cycles before leaving the network in 2021. He said early returns from Ohio will be a good indication of whether a rout is on for Democrats, and he does not think Republicans will be happy with the election results. Acosta said he does not miss CNN and is happy to be starting something at the beginning in creator-driven media.