ITV News - Election Coverage

Election Coverage

ITN has, like the BBC, run special through-the-night coverage on the day of general elections in Britain since its formation in 1955. Election 64 - The Result was hosted by Alastair Burnet, the fast-rising face of politics on ITV, and contained many visual gimmicks to keep the audience interested in the coverage. The BBC started the trend with its "swingometer" device. ITN's 1964 coverage presented a contraption referred to by Burnet as "KDF9" which aimed to pull in the results faster than its competitor over at the BBC. ITN's Election 66, again hosted by Burnet and providing nine-hour coverage of the results of the election between Harold Wilson and Ted Heath, utilised two computer machines that Burnet described as bringing in numerous pieces of data and statistical information - Burnet also quipped, "I'll let you into a secret - it can sing as well". The 1974 general election results were presented under the title The Nation Decides by Peter Snow. Technology had also vastly improved. "VTF30", a piece of technology based upon a knitting-pattern machine, provided moving computer graphics for the first time in television election coverage history.

The team of Alastair Burnet and Peter Sissons provided many memorable election night programmes on ITV, including the 1984 European elections and Election 87, but by 1992 the faces of ITV's political coverage had changed somewhat. Election 92 was anchored by Jon Snow, with Alastair Stewart providing graphical commentary and Julia Somerville assisting with regular news summaries. Stewart and Somerville were again present for ITV's 1997 coverage of the John Major-Tony Blair election - aptly titled Election 97 - with Jonathan Dimbleby as the anchor. Dimbleby returned for Election 2001 and Election 2005, aided both times by ITV News' political editors John Sergeant (in 2001) and Nick Robinson (in 2005) and a team of correspondents and newscasters around the country at polling stations.

The US presidential election of November 2008 was covered by ITN on the ITV network between 23:15 and 06:00 in a programme titled Election Night Live: America Decides, which saw ITN team up with fellow news organisation NBC; Alastair Stewart hosted from the studio in London, supported by MORI-founder Bob Worcester and a team of studio guests throughout the evening. Julie Etchingham, James Mates, Bill Neely and John Irvine provided the all-important presenting and reporting duties from the United States. Stewart also presented ITN coverage of the European Elections of 2009, an intimate affair with the newscaster and ITV News election analyst Colin Rallings in the studio. Political Editor Tom Bradby and Senior Political Correspondent Chris Ship provided regular updates, and a team of dedicated reporters gave results as they were counted around the country.

The UK general election campaign of 2010 was covered by ITV under the banner Campaign 2010, prominent in all its news and current affairs programming. There were special election-themed editions of the Tonight programme presented by ITN reporters and newscasters. Alastair Stewart was the moderator for The First Election Debate, the first ever debate between leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom, transmitted on 15 April between 20:30 and 22:00. A weekly discussion programme also began on that date: Campaign 2010 with Jonathan Dimbleby. The weeks of special programming culminated in the May 6 election night coverage on ITV: Election 2010, which was broadcast between 21:55 and 06:00 and presented by Alastair Stewart. Julie Etchingham fronted the traditional ITV election night graphics, Mary Nightingale hosted the ITV election party on the bank of the Thames, and ITV News Election Analyst Colin Rallings provided the all important psephological information. GMTV dedicated its entire May 7 programme to the Election, with contributions from ITV newscasters Etchingham, Nightingale and James Mates. Mark Austin and Katie Derham continued the ITN coverage following GMTV: Election 2010 returned between 09:25 and 10:50. Alastair Stewart then returned with the programme at 12:30 until 15:00. ITV1 Wales, STV and UTV provided additional programming relevant to their coverage areas.