E.W. Scripps Company’s national news network Newsy (poised to rebrand as Scripps News on Jan. 1) will present live election night coverage from 6 p.m. – 1 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Based out of Atlanta, Newsy anchors Alex Livingston, Del Walters and Chance Seales, along with Newsy political director Andrew Rafferty, will report real-time midterm election results from 7 p.m.-midnight ET. Walters will host a 6 p.m. “pregame show,” while Seales will host a special hour-long edition of Newsy Tonight at 12 a.m. ET.
Reporting from the field for Newsy are Haley Bull at the White House, Willie James Inman in Georgia, Nathaniel Reed in Pennsylvania, Maritsa Georgiou in Michigan, Jamal Andress in Ohio, Alex Miller in Florida, James Packard in Nevada, John Mone and Axel Turcios in Texas (Turcios will be in Ulvalde), Adi Guajardo in Arizona, Clayton Sandell in Colorado and Tammy Estwick in North Carolina.
We caught up with Newsy chief Eric Ludgood and the network’s election consultant Bob Epstein to find out what the outlet has planned for Tuesday night. Ludgood and Epstein will be in the control room with Scripps’ Head of Network News Kate O’Brian and senior executive for specials, Matt Simon.
TVNewser: What can the viewer expect from your network’s election night coverage that he or she didn’t see in 2020 or 2018?
Ludgood: Newsy’s goal in 2022 is to present comprehensive coverage with context—that is our mission. We’ll report the results as we learn them—and we’ll be clear to the audience that we’ll report what we know, and what we don’t know. Viewers will see an increased focus on the issues driving the vote, the economy, abortion, immigration, and education. Election security and integrity questions will be a prominent part of the coverage.
Newsy will have correspondents deployed across the country reporting not just who won and lost, but on what matters to the people who voted.
We have an experienced team in the studio in Atlanta—Chance Seales, Del Walters, Alex Livingston, and our political director Andrew Rafferty.
Haley Bull will report from the White House on the President and the new Congress. Also in Washington, Sasha Ingber and Patrick Terpstra will cover election security and integrity and Bianca Facchinei on the economy.
For the big races: Willie James Inman in Georgia, Nathaniel Reed in Pennsylvania, Adi Guajardo in Arizona, James Packard in Nevada, and Alex Miller in Florida. Maritsa Georgiou will be on the ground in Michigan where abortion rights is a big issue, we’ll be North Carolina with Tammy Estwick who will focus on education. Our two reporters in Texas, John Mone on immigration from the Rio Grande Valley and we’ll return to Uvalde with Axel Turcios. Jason Bellini will report from Kyiv on how a change in Congress could affect support for Ukraine’s war effort. We’ll also highlight work from political reporters at Scripps stations around the country.
What lessons did you take away from 2020 and 2018 that you’re keeping in mind for this year’s coverage?
Epstein: The most important lesson is “take your time,” and report only what we know. We’ve been through three tumultuous elections 2016, 2018 and 2020. And understand what you see at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. may not be how the night, or the week, will turn out. We always need to be transparent with our viewers with clear language about the status of a race.
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?
Ludgood: Newsy will stay with the story for as long as it goes on—until we know the control of Congress, if there are any challenges to the results or any runoffs that could keep the story going into December. For some states, our reporters will remain in place until the race is decided. We are fortunate to have existing reporting assets based in many of the key states and those teams will continue covering the races. And if needed, we have other staff ready to deploy.
