Brian Williams held our hand and gave us the opportunity to follow cable news – and the election

For a brief time on Tuesday nights, “Election Night with Brian Williams” was the current political news equivalent of a meditation app. As CNN’s John King and MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki touched on states and counties on their respective touchscreen maps, Williams calmly had a polite conversation about the election at the center of a gigantic sound stage in Los Angeles.

Behind him stretched a digital background that, from a direct camera perspective, made him look as if his desk was in the middle of a highway covered in American flags.

Two muscle cars were parked in the carpet of prairie bushes over his shoulder. At a long table with party strategists, consultants and media representatives such as Puck founding partner Baratunde Thurston and “The View” alum Abby Huntsman, she debated the merits of red and blue mirages in front of a classic red barn.

In another section of the set – which again looks like the inside of a warehouse – more experts relaxed quietly on sofas that looked like they were sourced from another Amazon warehouse. Somewhere else in the room, Meta Public Affairs Manager Erin McPike was circling states and finger-painting numbers on a TV touchscreen that looked like something you’d find in any corporate meeting room.

Unless you have a decision desk interrupting your flow, as Williams assured his audience at the start of the streaming broadcast, you don’t have to worry about such things. The motley crew at “Election Night” had everything in view for us – that is, Williams received updates on his cell phone from other stations’ decision desks.

“Election Night” brought the longtime NBC and MSNBC host back to the desk for a marathon evening of chatter about politics. Polite. What if it looked a little better produced than a local TV station’s public affairs show? It’s just an experiment in the kind of impartial reporting that may help Amazon figure out how to break into the live-streaming events space outside of sports, where Disney and Netflix have always had a foothold.

Williams opened the evening with a voice-over commentary of a letter to the nation’s first leaders. “Dear Founding Fathers, first of all, about this more perfect union thing. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re working on it.” That’s one way of putting it. From there, Williams addressed everything we had accomplished and what remained to be accomplished, boldly acknowledging that some of America’s first heroes enslaved the ancestors of Black people who, despite all the media hype, showed up in large numbers.

Along the way, Williams forgot to say the words, “Oh, and a bunch of people who supported the Republican candidate for president staged an insurrection on January 6, 2021,” because this was no such jamboree.

Instead, he put it this way: “The last time we did this, it was far from the peaceful process you envisioned. No one ever said that striving for a more perfect union would be easy.”

“Whatever happens tonight,” he concluded, “we will have a republic tomorrow and the day after.”

Who says live election coverage (on a platform founded by Jeff Bezos) can’t be optimistic?

Prime Video made “Election Night” available for free, even to users without an Amazon Prime subscription. For cable news junkies, it was a reunion of stars who had left the company voluntarily or forcibly, including former Fox anchor Shepard Smith, former CNN anchor Don Lemon and CNN’s longtime chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

On the left, James Carville hung out in his polo shirt, looking increasingly sombre as the evening wore on. On the conservative side were people like Kristin Davison of Axiom Strategies.

What was most noticeable, however, were the absences. “Election Night” was free of flashy graphics, screaming chyrons, and ominous gongs and bells on the hour. This happened whenever a result was announced, which was not so often, as MSNBC, Fox News and CNN emphasized on their television broadcasts.

The views fell slightly behind those of mainstream news. However, given the general reluctance to call most races other than the obvious deep red and blue states, and Fox’s early decision to go with Donald Trump in the entire race, there was no good feeling that we were missing something. Eventually, Democrats and those who voted with them realized their doom was imminent—but if that was the case, why rush into it?

Going into this election night, it’s natural for the brain to have a feeling. . . mixed up. Within months, the Democratic presidential campaign regrouped as President Joseph Biden dropped out because his party believed he couldn’t win to run for Vice President Kamala Harris, who, according to the widespread and misguided assumption, couldn’t lose.

Anyone who feared another four years of Trump wavered between hopelessness, euphoria and quiet fear. Joy rose again a day or two before the election when Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer saw a swing in the data that gave Harris a three-point lead in the Hawkeye State.

Still, all indicators pointed to a race that could almost trigger a panic attack. This feeling is not conducive to an evening with an information delivery system designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Admittedly, some viewers live for this stress.

NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki (William B. Plowman/NBC)Kornacki had an entire online cheering section where he reminisced on his election night performance on social media, admired his delicate dance and delivered monologues at the large table.

That too had its limits. A few hours after Kornacki did what he does best, TV writer Sierra Ornelas posted on X what I, and I’m sure many others, were thinking. “I’ve gotten to the point where I want to kiss Kornacki and hit him too,” she said. “Does that make sense?” The post has since disappeared.

The cable news landscape has long been a place of information overload, which only accelerated during Trump’s first presidency. Election night coverage from the three major cable news networks also highlighted how stark the divide has become between the left-wing coverage on MSNBC and the right-wing coverage on Fox.

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and her campaign team expressed optimism about the Democrats’ chances, reflecting the sunnier side of polls that once again misjudged several key factors, including the extent to which Latinos and Gen Z white men support Trump agreed. On Fox, Jesse Watters called Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Megyn Kelly “a murderous line of intellectuals” who supported the former president.

As for her take on Harris earlier in the evening, Fox star Greg Gutfeld had this wealth of insight from the final poll. “It’s interesting that 70% say this country is going in the wrong direction. Isn’t it ironic that it’s the woman who refuses to ask for directions?”

CNN’s expected position in all this is ostensibly the focus – and certainly King and Jake Tapper have done their best to lead us into an obviously unexpected turn of events, lubricated by terms like “gaffe” and exaggerated by interrupting gongs that “too close” announced “call” non-notifications.

In this ranking, “Election Night” was the perfect combination of checking in and checking out. Many, including myself, described it as lo-fi and definitely more affordable, like the nice place down the street that does serve food but is actually a takeout menu from a nearby place and a bar that’s ready is offered to collect your order.

Want a daily digest of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

But honestly, spending time at Williams’ News Cave jamboree wasn’t so bad. With Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight’s poll analysis in disarray and social media echo chambers shifting from stable to completely freaked out over the course of the evening, there was a bastion of calm in Williams’ election information missile silo.

There were no happy giggles or smiles to hide discomfort, just a respectful discussion between people on both sides of the political fence or about what this result tells us about who we are and how we as a nation should process these results.

If November 5 marks the grand finale of American democracy, then “Election Night” will be remembered as the strange companion that held our hands as the first flashes of lightning appeared on the distant horizon. It may remain a one-off affair. But when it comes back I hope it doesn’t change anything except maybe a screen refresh.