Television: Not quite all right on the night

By BRIAN RUDMAN

Panellists on the TV1 election special were told to bring heavy overcoats. They were warned that it could be very cold off-stage at the Avalon studios. What state television saved on the heating bill, they obviously sank into wages and electronic wizardry.

On Saturday night we got the full Hollywood blockbuster, outdoor cameras throughout the land and a command centre that looked like Nasa mission control in the glory days. What money couldn't buy though - in the first hour or so anyway - was a little wisdom, or at least caution, from their "experts".

Having competed with each other over how many campaigns they'd covered (I think Colin James led with 11) the talk quickly turned to a perceived swing to the right. This when less than 1 per cent of the vote had been counted.

By 8pm, with around 4 per cent counted, Chris Trotter was declaring Winston Peters the kingmaker, and when ringmaster Mike Hoskings said "but no one wants to deal with him", Mr Trotter declared, "they will have to".

A few minutes later, and with less than 7 per cent of the vote counted, Mr James announced a 7 per cent swing to the right. By 8.30pm, Mr Trotter, whose predictions of doom on the left have made him into a one-man apocalyptician, was declaring what was happening was part of a worldwide pattern of centre-left governments falling.

Ironically, across on TV3 around the same time, former National minister Max Bradford was explaining National's decline as part of a worldwide trend against conservative parties.

The first hour or so of state television's coverage made riveting viewing, but it was also misleading.

Maybe the excitement of the occasion got the better of them to begin with, but knowing that conservative rural votes traditionally come in first and the more liberal big cities last, a more cautious approach would have been wiser - and saved subsequent backtracking.

As it turned out, they would have been smart to have kept one eye on rival TV3's low-budget set.

Here, John Campbell and his five panellists, squeezed behind a desk that looked oddly like a giant banana, kept their feet firmly on the ground.

In the first couple of hours they kept noting Labour's slow start, but said it was too early to predict anything from it.

One thing both channels had in common were intervals of light relief.

Neither worked.

TV1 used a panel of old parliamentary fogeys chaired by one-term dropout Pam Corkery. Did we really need to hear the humourless Chris Laidlaw agreeing with Ms Corkery about how "deeply undignified" knocking on doors seeking voter support had been. Poor dears. No wonder many voters don't think much of politicians, either. Comedian Raybon Kan on TV3 was even worse. Both channels did a first-class job bringing the leaders live to air. We even learned from outside the prime ministerial residence what the Clark retinue had dined on - though TV1 assured us it was takeaway Thai while their rivals claimed it was curry.

Talking curry, both Mr Hoskings and Mr Campbell managed to rile Winston Peters.

The New Zealand First leader on the Immigration Department: "I've never seen such a corrupt, lying, deceitful department ... " As for National, it was "a sad wreck ... on the way out."

These didn't sound like the words of the king maker being predicted a couple of hours previously.

A winner? For not getting over-excited when the first results started coming in, TV3.

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