NBC plans to cover Election Night from studio at Rockefeller Center

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC is turning Rockefeller Center into a giant television studio on Election Night, covering the landmark skating rink with a jigsaw puzzle map of the United States and turning the side of the General Electric building into an electronic bar graph.
NBC has built an outdoor anchor booth overlooking Rockefeller Plaza for anchorman Tom Brokaw and analyst Tim Russert. Separate booths there will house anchor teams from MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
Celebration
The whiz-bang plans -- one competitor has already dubbed the set "democracy on ice" -- are meant to evoke a time when Election Night was a celebration of how Americans come together to make a decision on their future, Brokaw said this week.
"People felt included on Election Night," he said. "I worry that in the past 10, 15 years or so the American political process has been more about exclusion."
A stadium-sized TV screen will be visible behind the anchors. The skating surface will be transformed into a huge map, with puzzle pieces of each state colored red or blue for President Bush or John Kerry put in place when results are clear.
Red and blue lights will be superimposed on the GE building, for a graphic signifying how many electoral votes Bush or Kerry have earned.
It's likely to be the most elaborate Election Night plan for any network, although CNN is building a temporary studio at the Nasdaq headquarters in Times Square. Dan Rather will be in the CBS studios on the West Side. ABC News and Fox News Channel haven't detailed their plans.