Bloomberg will be simulcasting an election night special, Midterms 2022 on Bloomberg Tuesday, Nov. 8 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on TV, Radio, and QuickTake, Bloomberg’s 24/7 streaming global news platform.
The news outlet will offer political commentary, breaking news, and an analysis of what it means for markets, the economy, and policies across various issues, and for the first time in 2022, coverage will originate from the company’s newly redesigned interactive studio in Washington, DC, with more breadth of coverage and analysis.
David Westin will anchor Bloomberg’s midterm election night special, and he’ll be joined in studio by Joe Mathieu, Kriti Gupta, Annmarie Hordern, Mario Parker, and Wendy Benjaminson throughout the evening.
The midterm election night special will also feature Bloomberg journalists in the field across the country in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona and Nevada, and more.
We caught up with Bloomberg TV and Radio political news director Jodi Schneider, the executive in charge of Bloomberg’s midterm election night coverage, to find out lessons the news outlet learned from 2020 and 2018 election coverage and what, if any, contingency plans the newsroom has set if the elections continue past Tuesday night.
TVNewser: What lessons did you take away from 2020 and 2018 that you’re keeping in mind for this year’s coverage?
Schneider: The main lesson was not to expect we already know the outcomes in key races that could determine control of the US Senate or House on election night. We are planning coverage in the days and even weeks following the election—a lesson we learned notably in 2020, with key races that went to runoffs. Georgia, for instance, could be in the same situation this year as it was in 2020.
Where will you be spending most of election night? If it’s in the control room, who will you be seated near/next to?
As political news director, I’ll spend a lot of time in our Washington DC control room. I’ll be communicating with our in-studio team and DC newsroom staffed with broadcast journalists, editors, and reporters who will communicate results and analysis in real time.
If past is prologue, some of these races may not be decided on Nov. 8 or even Nov. 9. Do you have contingency plans set if this goes on for multiple days, and if so, what are they?
As mentioned above, we learned in 2020 that we may not know the outcome of key races when Bloomberg’s election special ends Tuesday night. Since Bloomberg TV is a global network, there will be around-the-clock coverage during the Asia and European hours, followed by a return to full coverage in the US at 5 a.m. Bloomberg Surveillance, which typically airs from our headquarters in NYC, will air a special broadcast from Washington, DC, the next day in our newly revamped studio. We also have plans for coverage in the days and weeks following, as needed.