Steve Kornacki explains 'abrupt ending' to epic midterm marathon stream - USA Today
Steve Kornacki is back to give viewers some closure after his epic midterms marathon.
The network's chief data analyst went live for a whopping 10 straight hours for NBC News' coverage of the midterm elections Nov. 3. Throughout the evening, Kornacki regularly appeared on the NBC television network to discuss the election results as they came in. But NBC also hosted a livestream dubbed "Kornacki Cam" that stayed with Kornacki all night long.
The stream ended a bit abruptly, though: After impressively staying on for more than 10 hours with virtually no breaks, Kornacki told viewers he'd be taking five minutes and would be "right back," only to never return.
In an early morning X post on Nov. 4, Kornacki explained he had planned to be live for 13 hours but had to dip out a bit earlier than anticipated.
"I was sure 13 hours would be fine but things caught up to me in a hurry at hour 10," he wrote. "I can't say thanks enough to all of you. What a ride and I think we did make livestream history. Sorry for the abrupt ending!"
Prior to Kornacki's update, viewers had joked about the lack of closure to the stream: "I didn't want him to go without saying goodbye," one person wrote in the YouTube comments, while another quipped, "I'm not going to bed until there is proof of life from Steve."
At the start of Kornacki's coverage, which officially kicked off about 30 minutes before the first polls closed, the elections guru told viewers he was embarking on a "grand livestream experiment." The idea was that all night, the stream would show Kornacki whenever he joined the NBC network for analysis. But in between those segments, the stream would keep on rolling continuously, so Kornacki would continue talking to viewers and providing insights.
"We're doing something we've never done before," he said, explaining, "I'm going to be going into the NBC broadcast. You'll see that on this livestream. I'm going to be coming back when I'm not on NBC, and we're going to be doing results, results, results. We're going to do it all night."
Kornacki noted at the start that he was skeptical of how it would work to do a stream in the same studio where NBC anchors Savannah Guthrie and Tom Llamas would be hosting the network's regular election coverage.
"When they told me they wanted to try this, I was like, 'Well, Savannah and Tom are going to want to kill me because I'm going to drive them crazy,'" he said. "But we tested the sound and everything. They said they don't really hear me. I don't really hear them."
Kornacki, famed for providing incisive election analysis and breaking down results by county while standing in front of a screen dubbed the Big Board, also said early on that his plan was to keep streaming "through the morning."
As the stream continued, viewers in the live chat and on social media marveled at Kornacki's stamina, especially considering he was standing the entire time and was rarely off camera for more than a few moments. Even when he wasn't speaking, the feed would usually still show Kornacki looking at his phone or a nearby monitor.
"Steve's multitasking skills is legendary," one viewer commented in the live chat, and YouTuber David Doel praised the stream as possibly the "greatest thing NBC has ever concocted."
At one point, after nine hours of coverage, NBC anchor Craig Melvin addressed viewers who might be confused about how Kornacki was still going. "For those of you who might be concerned about Steve Kornacki's well-being … I can confirm that Steve Kornacki has had a bathroom break, and we are nourishing him, as well."
According to NBC, the Kornacki Cam stream was the No. 1 election live stream on YouTube for the midterms, and it amassed 29 million views across platforms.
