Time each network called the election.

[Thomas Jackson]

I was looking at this chart, and wanted to figure out what time each network called the election.

http://www.dampolitics.com/pastelections/election%20night%20calls.html

Most of the election night coverage is available on Youtube. Here is what I found.

Network   -      Time          -      Decisive State.
-----------------------------------------------------------
AP - 2:31 (Wisconsin).
RT - 2:31 (Wisconsin).
Fusion - 2:31 AM (Wisconsin).
PBS -  2:31 AM (Wisconsin).
Fox News -  2:40 AM (Pennsylvania tipping point State) (The Fox anchors didn't seem to know what was going on. Rove was in the middle of speaking when the electoral scorecard flipped on the screen and the crowd outside noticed it and went crazy.)
Fox Business - 2:40 AM (Pennsylvania).
CNN - 2:47 AM (Pennsylvania) (Called the Race when Trump was walking out to the Air Force One music).
CBS - 2:53 AM (I think Pennsylvania, but it is hard to tell, because they called the race in the middle of the speech.)
ABC - 2:53 AM (ABC Called Pennsylvania at 2:47, but had not yet called Wisconsin, they put up a graphic in the middle of Trump's speech saying that he was the next President, but didn't update the electoral votes until later.)
NBC - 3:03 AM (Called both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin at the same time, almost at the very end of the victory speech.)
MSNBC - 3:03 AM (Called both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin at the end of Trump's speech.)
BBC - 3:04 AM (Wisconsin).

Anyone have any other networks? When did the online sources call the election? (I think DecisionDeskHQ was much faster than any of the networks.)
When SHOULD the election have been called? Would the enemedia have called the election quicker if Hillary! and Trump had reversed their respective positions on election night?

[rbt48]

Kudos to AP, RT, Fusion, and PBS.

I have watched most of the video on You Tube.  I wish I had realized before the night was nearly done that DirecTV had a special channel with six different networks all occupying 1/6th of the screen.

Thanks for starting this topic!

[Thomas Jackson]

The AP (and RT, Fusion and PBS) actually called Pennsylvania at 1:35 AM, fully an hour before they called Wisconsin.

Realistically, I think the election should have been called at 1:35 AM when they were sure that Pennsylvania was going to go to Trump. The Wisconsin lead that Trump had at that point was substantial and the areas that were out, were not going to reverse it. Moreover, they hadn't called Arizona either, and they had more than enough data to see that Arizona was not going to go to Hillary!.

[Thomas Jackson]

Here is a link to the Youtube footage for each of the networks that I could find:

RT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac1OMkYVL6Y
Fusion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PxBIdYyxB8
PBS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL-gicgoCAY
Fox News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YizQYu_u3hw
Fox Business - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_728naAQE
CNN - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSHlNjhXkwo
CBS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktx8YfHkWU0
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j88yl6TwjQ0
NBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf_DZlaY2sc
MSNBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVLp0QhZK1w
BBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMuXg83A0G0

I just found CBC as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkb3oFIFAXc

[Thomas Jackson]

The AP (and RT, Fusion and PBS) actually called Pennsylvania at 1:35 AM, fully an hour before they called Wisconsin.

Realistically, I think the election should have been called at 1:35 AM when they were sure that Pennsylvania was going to go to Trump. The Wisconsin lead that Trump had at that point was substantial and the areas that were out, were not going to reverse it. Moreover, they hadn't called Arizona either, and they had more than enough data to see that Arizona was not going to go to Hillary!.

Are you trying to say that the networks were purposefully not calling the election timely because it looked like Trump was winning?

I'm not trying to say that... I'm saying it.

[Thomas Jackson]

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Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin were called far later than they should have been.

You also had the strange situation where Fox and CNN called Wisconsin early, and AP, PBS, RT and Fusion called Pennsylvania early, but no one would put together the combinations.

DecisionDeskHQ was much quicker.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I noticed that, for two or three hours, some networks had called PA and others had called WI.  Putting them together, Trump was over 270, but no network was willing to call both.  It's almost as if they wanted to keep the suspense.

Does anyone happen to remember the time FOX called Wisconsin, by the way?  It was pretty early, if I remember.

[Thomas Jackson]

I noticed that, for two or three hours, some networks had called PA and others had called WI.  Putting them together, Trump was over 270, but no network was willing to call both.  It's almost as if they wanted to keep the suspense.

Does anyone happen to remember the time FOX called Wisconsin, by the way?  It was pretty early, if I remember.

11:30 PM

If the AP had called Wisconsin around that time as well, they could have called the election at 1:35 AM when they called Pennsylvania.

[Pandaguineapig]

I think the networks were overly cautious in not calling the election because 2000 is still a very vivid memory for many in the media. They decided it would be better to call the election an hour later than necessary than have to retract calls like the detroit free press

[Klartext89]

The AP (and RT, Fusion and PBS) actually called Pennsylvania at 1:35 AM, fully an hour before they called Wisconsin.

Realistically, I think the election should have been called at 1:35 AM when they were sure that Pennsylvania was going to go to Trump. The Wisconsin lead that Trump had at that point was substantial and the areas that were out, were not going to reverse it. Moreover, they hadn't called Arizona either, and they had more than enough data to see that Arizona was not going to go to Hillary!.

Are you trying to say that the networks were purposefully not calling the election timely because it looked like Trump was winning?

I'm not trying to say that... I'm saying it.

They weren't doing that.  They were clearly disillusioned because they had all convinced themselves that Hillary would win and didn't want to mis-call anything.  There were a lot of Hillary states that were called late too... Virginia took a very very long time to call even though it was obvious that Trump wasn't getting the kind of number from downstate to counteract what was to come in NOVA.

LOL, they didn't call states (like Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, Florida) even when Trump was leading with margins which were impossible to flip. In fact, Clinton conceded way before the networks were ready to accept reality.

[Lachi]

I think the networks were overly cautious in not calling the election because 2000 is still a very vivid memory for many in the media. They decided it would be better to call the election an hour later than necessary than have to retract calls like the detroit free press

[emailking]

I noticed that, for two or three hours, some networks had called PA and others had called WI.  Putting them together, Trump was over 270, but no network was willing to call both.  It's almost as if they wanted to keep the suspense.

Same thing happened in 2004 actually. If you put all the calls from all of the networks together, Bush had won. But no network called it for him until the next day.

[angus]

When SHOULD the election have been called? Would the enemedia have called the election quicker if Hillary! and Trump had reversed their respective positions on election night?

I have no idea.  Interesting information, though.

I remember watching a little of the coverage between 9ish and 10:30ish, after we got back from the club, and I remember being a little surprised that more states hadn't been called for Clinton by then.  I was tired--Tuesdays were very long last semester--and clicked off the TV about 10:30 and drifted off to sleep.  When I awakened at about 6:30 I came downstairs and the first thing I did, before making the boy's breakfast which is normally the first thing do on a schoolday, was sit down in front of the laptop and check out WaPo on-line.  The headline was "TRUMP TRIUMPHS"  No sheet?!  I was taken aback.  The Donald won?  Then I started thinking of all the smug Hillary supporters on this forum and I had a hearty belly laugh.  Anyway, the election was apparently called sometime between about 10:30 pm and 6:30 am.   

[JoshPA]

msnbc is the left wing verison of fox news but worst their prediction talk about clinton winning deep southern red states.

[emailking]

msnbc is the left wing verison of fox news but worst their prediction talk about clinton winning deep southern red states.

I don't remember anything like that. Other maybe Georgia which a lot of people thought might be in grasp due to some of the polling.

Maybe somebody said something like that at some point but it was definitely not something regularly mentioned.

[Thomas Jackson]

msnbc is the left wing verison of fox news but worst their prediction talk about clinton winning deep southern red states.

I don't remember anything like that. Other maybe Georgia which a lot of people thought might be in grasp due to some of the polling.

Maybe somebody said something like that at some point but it was definitely not something regularly mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaaEYC4RDUQ

[catscanjumphigh]

Fox had everything called shortly before 11:00p.m.  I can only imagine how embarrassed the other networks were having to call a bunch of states once Clinton conceded.  They don't live in the real world though.

[alomas]

They were really cautious. For example, Trump was holding a steady 3-4 point lead in Arizona and it was clear around midnight that he'll win there yet some waited for a call until few days later. This combined with Wisconsin, other very very late call (Fox called it 11:30pm), would have given him presidency. That created a scenario in which some people still very much treated this as a 50/50 race even then when in reality she had 0,1%. Georgia - another very late call.

I called it before midnight. With Wisconsin in his pocket, Arizona holding steady there was no way she gets 270 unless she wins Nebraska-02 (well) or Alaska (yeah) along with PA, MI, NH and MN. Oh, and the second district of Maine, which she lost by a big margin.

[Lachi]

Fox had everything called shortly before 11:00p.m.  I can only imagine how embarrassed the other networks were having to call a bunch of states once Clinton conceded.  They don't live in the real world though.

Nah, not really, especially if it's Fox News they are lagging behind, because who would have egg on their face if a state call had to be retracted?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Fox had everything called shortly before 11:00p.m.  I can only imagine how embarrassed the other networks were having to call a bunch of states once Clinton conceded.  They don't live in the real world though.

Nah, not really, especially if it's Fox News they are lagging behind, because who would have egg on their face if a state call had to be retracted?

FOX News was slow calling Pennsylvania, so they didn't call it until 2:40 Eastern time.

[jaichind]

I noticed that, for two or three hours, some networks had called PA and others had called WI.  Putting them together, Trump was over 270, but no network was willing to call both.  It's almost as if they wanted to keep the suspense.

Does anyone happen to remember the time FOX called Wisconsin, by the way?  It was pretty early, if I remember.

11:30 PM

If the AP had called Wisconsin around that time as well, they could have called the election at 1:35 AM when they called Pennsylvania.

Yeah.  It seems that it was pretty much over after 10PM but statistically Clinton was still in it.  I remember when FOX called WI at 11:30PM I said to myself, well, its over statistically since I knew Trump must have taken ME-2 IA UT AZ and AK even if they were not called yet by FOX.  I pretty much went to bed soon after that since there was no more suspense.

I do not thing networks were holding back on purpose.  My understanding is that the decision desk of each network was kept isolated from their reporting staff and had only access to election results data and were not allowed to monitor how their own or other media outlets were reporting the election so they are not influenced unfairly.  I guess it just turned out that some desks called PA abut not WI while others called WI but not PA so it took a long time to all called Trump states to add up to 270+ even though it was clear to all hours ahead of time that it was over.

[emailking]

msnbc is the left wing verison of fox news but worst their prediction talk about clinton winning deep southern red states.

I don't remember anything like that. Other maybe Georgia which a lot of people thought might be in grasp due to some of the polling.

Maybe somebody said something like that at some point but it was definitely not something regularly mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaaEYC4RDUQ

Those aren't "predictions" of him losing heavily red states. He's going through the polls and showing they weren't looking good for Trump. He would regularly explore the implications all kinds of possibilities and also did it in the other direction too.

[bouncycorn]

Very interesting. CNN was late all night it seemed.