If political junkies around the country were feeling pretty punchy by the time Mitt Romney squeezed out a victory in Iowa early Wednesday morning, just imagine how the folks who had to hold it together on TV felt. On all three cable channels, the political teams were on air live until around 3 a.m. surviving on a mix of coffee and adrenaline.
“Up with Chris Hayes” host Chris Hayes was on air from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. “I got home at 4 a.m. and had to have a swig of bourbon and watch some NBA highlights to decompress before I could fall asleep because I was so wired,” Hayes said via email. His colleague Ed Schultz was home in bed by 1 a.m. “I don’t need caffeine, I run on something I like to call ‘Ed-renaline,” he quipped.
The folks at Fox News Channel, who were broadcasting from Iowa, got to enjoy some pizza, though Megyn Kelly opted for a more nutricious option. “Amazingly I did not have a single cup of coffee — I’m not sure why, I also declined pizza served on set during a break (again, why would I turn that down??)” she wrote Yeas & Nays. “I did however have a lot of water and a Zone bar (par-tay!),” she joked.
And then there was CNN, whose “magic wall” technology could have gone a bit further. “After 2008 I, only half jokingly, asked the tech geniuses about attaching an espresso maker to the magic wall — I was wishing last night I had been more demanding,” said CNN’s John King. “I’ll admit to several cups of coffee in the 10 p.m. – midnight range, but the adrenaline kicked in once it was clear we had such drama on our hands.”
