Election 2016: Best And Worst News Coverage

With a Trump win looking inevitable, the CNN pundit spoke eloquently of the personal despair he was feeling about the likely result. "This was a whitelash against a changing country," he lamented. "A whitelash against a black president. That's the part where the pain comes."

As election coverage got underway, CNN's Jake Tapper was quick to fact-check a tweet from Donald Trump that spoke of glitchy voting machines across the country — when, in fact, it was one county that experienced ballot issues. "It's a difference of an 'r,' but kind of an important one," Tapper cheekily told the camera.

For hardcore political junkies, this special Election Day smorgasbord was like heaven, offering a split of four cable news channels — CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and BBC World News — along with a tally of electoral votes and congressional seats on the side. (It was like the NFL's Red Zone... but with a lot more at stake.) But it was also probably too much of a good thing: Before any races were even called, we were already exhausted from the information overload.

Trump surrogate and former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani was eager to point out the liberal media bias in an interview with MSNBC's Katy Tur — so eager, in fact, that he forgot which network he was on. "I want to show you the unfairness of CNBC," he said, before Tur corrected him: "This is MSNBC." Giuliani brushed off her correction: "MSNBC... you're the same." Can someone send Giuliani an updated channel guide for his cable box?

"It would be sweet, sweet justice if tonight it was the Latino vote that defeated Donald Trump," political commentator Ana Navarro noted on CNN, after reciting a list of Trump's negative comments about that demographic.

Ten minutes into CNN's coverage and we were already sick of them. News flash to Wolf Blitzer: A voter sneezing in a battleground state doesn't qualify as a "Key Race Alert."

With Ohio still a toss-up, CBS' Gayle King asks the million-dollar question: "So are you saying that Beyoncé didn't make a difference in Ohio for the Clinton campaign? Because you're going to break hearts all around."

"I believe that the [Fox News] studio costs $39 million — and this is all we needed," Megyn Kelly said after Karl Rove gave an election-night update using a small whiteboard. "We could have done it for 12 dollars."

His mastery of the Florida electorate blew our minds. The smartest guy in the room on Election Night by a landslide.

We felt like we were trapped in post-apocalyptic Panem as we watched MSNBC project Trump and Clinton's faces on the side of a huge building as they won each state. (If only we could vote for Katniss Everdeen.)

"This is where my friend Chuck Todd begins to salivate," NBC's Lester Holt said as results from Florida's Miami-Dade County began to come in. Lester, nobody wants to think about that.

Has someone seen The Phantom of the Opera too many times? "That chandelier scares me," Fox News' Bret Baier said, looking nervously upward. Upon realizing that he'd interrupted co-anchor Monica Crowley, he said, "I was listening, Monica. I really was." Then, because why not, Megyn Kelly revealed that the chandelier has a name: Chandy!

The politically-themed, red-and-blue snake necklace that Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wore on ABC was an eye-catcher, all right — but perhaps for the wrong reasons?

The Eye Network's "3-D" charts that rose out of the floor settled at some odd, low height — as if Anthony Mason wasn't talking about them but more about to set a drink down on them.

The super-pregnant Today co-host put in a full day's work Tuesday morning... then returned for NBC's primetime coverage. Dude, we're with her.

Did ABC intend for us to hear what Faris was saying about recount protocols? Because we could barely make out a word of it over the people hollering behind her.

Knowing from experience it'd be a long haul, even when seated for six hours, CBS contributor Charlie Rose went for comfort with a covert pair of sneakers.

Who was in charge of map uniformity at CBS? Because Scott Pelley looked silly going to discuss "white" (toss-up) states on this smaller map, where they actually were gray.

Or else this combination of ad and election update is just a hilarious coincidence.

He got a little frantic at times, but MSNBC's resident vote nerd did an admirable job breaking down the wonky county-by-county results in an unexpectedly tight race. Take a long nap on Wednesday, Steve; you've earned it.

CBS' Bob Schieffer offered this pointed, poignant take as stirring results from battleground states such as Florida came in: "We have known this is a deeply divided nation. What we have found out tonight is... maybe we didn't understand how divided we really were."

"Apparently Tom Brady likes him, so that should be good with the Pats fans," Fox News' Chris Stirewalt declared of Trump. (Just one problem: Brady's wife Gisele Bündchen already debunked this myth on Instagram.)

ABC took an opportunity at almost every commercial break to remind us that no matter how the election turns out, Kiefer Sutherland will not be our next president.