Special coverage of recall planned on election night

Television networks are sending their big guns to California for Tuesday's recall vote, eager to tap into the political circus that could make Arnold Schwarzenegger the state's next governor.

Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather will be heading West, and cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC have put special election-night plans in place to cover a race that has shoved other political news to the side.

"This isn't just a California story," Steve Capus, executive producer of NBC's "Nightly News," said Thursday. "It's a national story. It's worthy of sending the big guns out there."

Since Aug. 1, broadcast network evening news programs have given the California recall nearly four times as much airplay as the Democratic presidential candidates.

Both Brokaw and his designated successor as NBC's lead anchor, Brian Williams, will be in California. Katie Couric will anchor the "Today" show from Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday.

ABC, CBS and NBC all plan special reports on election results Tuesday. But since it will already be 11 p.m. EDT when California polls close, prime-time network programming will be largely uninterrupted on the East Coast. Interruptions in other time zones will depend on how quickly results come in, network executives said.

For example, ABC said Jennings will air a special report only "when results are known." "Nightline" will air a live election report at 11:35 p.m. EDT and again three hours later.

"It will be a late night," Capus said. "Night could give way to daylight and we may not know who the next governor of California is going to be. Because of the intrigue, it makes it a better story."

Fox News Channel plans to break into its regularly scheduled prime-time lineup Tuesday with periodic updates, and at 11 p.m., Brit Hume will anchor an election report from Washington. Special live second editions of "Hannity & Colmes" and Greta Van Susteren's "On the Record" will air later. Van Susteren will be in Los Angeles.

Wolf Blitzer will anchor a special three-hour election report on CNN, starting at 11 p.m. EDT. He'll be joined by CNN's political team of Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield, Candy Crowley and Bill Schneider. Blitzer will also provide updates during prime-time on the East Coast.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews will be busy. He'll anchor his show, "Hardball," at 7 p.m. EDT, then preside over five hours of live election coverage from Los Angeles starting at 9 p.m. EDT. Joe Scarborough will anchor election coverage from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. EDT.