Inside CNN’s Tech-Forward Midterm Election Set

Multiple magic walls. New forms of data. And a decision desk that will be front and center are among the plans CNN has up its sleeve for Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Abigail Crutchfield, senior VP of Washington programming & special events programming for CNN, gave a walkthrough of the set for The Hollywood Reporter, showing off the walls of screens, the new Magic Wall displays that John King will hold forth at, and sections of the set and decision desk that will allow for more conversations between anchors and experts.

“We are making choices about what is the thing that we want to talk about and show you at any given moment,” Crutchfield says. “Obviously we don’t want chaos, and we don’t want it to just be a flood of information that nobody can understand. But we do want to be able to connect the dots between the different pieces.”

As with past elections, the anchors will serve as the masters of ceremonies, so to speak, calling the races, asking the analysts and correspondents for their thoughts, and throwing to reporters in the field. But this year data will be a supporting character too, and not just on King’s Magic Wall (though they will have that too).

“I view myself as something of a conductor on election night,” says Jake Tapper, who will co-anchor coverage alongside Anderson Cooper. “I’m surrounded by people who are really, really good at what they do, and part of my job is knowing when to bring each of them in. Let’s say John King at the Magic Wall is the horn section, and our analysts and commentators are the strings. It’s a team effort, and you’re trying to bring all of those voices and all of that information together in a way that makes sense for the viewer.”

“If you’ve ever been in a control room on election night, you have so much data and information at your fingertips, and then usually it’s the control room that is really picking ‘okay, what are we going to show viewers? What are we going to talk about on air?’ And a lot of that is about just having clarity and storytelling,” Crutchfield says. “But we live in an age now where people can be looking at results online, and there’s things that they’re getting on social media. So, a lot of what we wanted to do is just put some of that information that we have always looked at on election night, and put it front and center for our viewers and for our talent … we wanted them to be able to see everything real time, like we are as it’s coming in, so that we can all help interpret it and bring it to viewers together.”

Viewers will notice that many of the anchors, correspondents and analysts will all be on the set together, a change from recent elections where multiple sets and multiple cities were the norm. It’s part of the larger goal of taking viewers behind the scenes to understand how the sausage gets made.

“What’s exciting about this set is that more of that team is going to be in the room with us,” says Jake Tapper. “There will be more people, more information and more tools at our fingertips, so viewers will really get a sense of the full operation behind an election night.”

And King’s Magic Wall will get its multi-screen upgrade, which Crutchfield says will be distinct from previous efforts in that the data will all be connected.

“What we’re what we’re able to do this year is they’re all connected. So when John is digging into a particular county on his wall, he gets he gets data that’s connected to that county, whether it’s demographics or history,” she says. “There’s different options that he can choose, but it all comes up simultaneously to help with his storytelling. And then it also has a dynamic leaderboard so that he can see at any given moment where the races are for the Senate, House, or governors, and then where the possible flips are.”

But it is the decision desk, led by Jennifer Agiesta, that will play a more prominent role in coverage, with the anchors expected to turn to them to really explain why they are making the calls that they are.

“It’s basically giving viewers a sense of what are the indicators, and sometimes the indicators are not pointing the same direction, and that’s when it gets really interesting,” Crutchfield says, noting the “confusing” nature of midterm elections. “It’s giving people a sense of where the race is going, and then it’s explaining to them why we think that, and that’s obviously all real time data.”

“I’ve been covering elections since 2000, and there’s still nothing quite like them,” Tapper says. “You can prepare for every scenario, but the night ultimately takes you where it takes you. After months if not years of polls and pundits and predictions what’s exciting about election night is it’s entirely up to the voters. It’s entirely in their hands. That lack of control and excitement about the unknown makes it so fun to anchor.”