| Tucker Carlson might no longer enjoy the reach of Fox News, the top cable news network in the country, but on election night his newfound place as an internet content creator and podcast host afforded him a new kind of access. On Tuesday night, he hosted a live show on YouTube and X from a wood-paneled room in Mar-a-Lago where Donald Trump and his team had gathered to watch the results. Carlson's show consisted of interviews with a merry-go-round of Trump insiders. Carlson, with a painted portrait of a young Trump hanging on the wall behind him, rotated through VIP guests including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, David Sacks and Dana White, the chief executive officer of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Elon Musk was there too, along with his son X Æ A-12. For anyone who wanted to capture the vibe in the immediate vicinity of Trump and what exactly his team was thinking at that moment, Carlson sat in the best seat. At the end of the night, as it became clear that Trump would likely win, Musk attributed some of the success to podcasts. "I think it made a big difference that President Trump and soon-to-be Vice President Vance went on lengthy podcasts," he said. "This really makes a difference because people look at Joe Rogan's podcast, which is great, and Lex Fridman's and the All-In Podcast, and, to a reasonable-minded, smart person who's not hardcore one way or the other, they just listen to someone talk for a few hours. And that's how they decide whether you're a good person, whether they like you." Later that night, during Trump's acceptance speech, White also used his limited time on the mic to shout out podcasters. "I want to thank some people real quick — I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' With The Boys and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan," he said. Moving forward, podcasts will likely play an increasingly central role in future elections, and Rogan especially will field more requests for his blessing. Still, podcasts face a slight conundrum when it comes to election night. How do you take an on-demand program and make it must-consume content on the biggest news night of the year? The answer this time around: livestreams on YouTube. I counted no fewer than 10 major podcasts and networks with their own livestreams, including Breaking Points, The Free Press, Charlie Kirk and Patrick Bet-David. (Vanity Fair attended Bet-David's show from a hangar in Florida and published a dispatch from the scene, which I recommend reading.) Maybe more interesting, though, was the structure of these streams, which demonstrated their hosts' solid understanding not only of their audiences but also their business and how they and their fellow yappers can build each other up. In most streams, the podcasters brought in other podcasters, resulting in something like a Marvel universe of podcasters. The best way to grow your podcast? Go on somebody else's. Candace Owens, Bryan Callen and Dave Smith appeared on Bet-David's show, for instance. Over the course of its eleven-hour stream, The Daily Wire invited on Megyn Kelly, Jordan B. Peterson, Spencer Klavan and Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks. (Kelly and Kasparian also anchored their own streams that evening.) Meanwhile, the All-In Podcast, hosted by venture capitalists including Sacks, arranged their own stream with the hosts patching in from various places on a Zoom call. Sacks called in from Mar-a-Lago while Steve Bannon, whose podcast has been removed from Spotify Technology SA and YouTube, appeared to broadcast from Washington D.C. Notably, few left-leaning voices called into these programs, apart from Kasparian and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. Everyone kept cozy within their circle of like-minded individuals. On Pod Save America yesterday, Tommy Vietor noted Trump's courting of podcasters and YouTubers and lamented the fact that the left hasn't yet built a similar cross-hyping coalition of internet creators. Trump "helps them over time built out a massive, powerful right-wing media ecosystem that the Democratic Party just does not have," he said. "We run our stuff through the mainstream media, traditional filter." On Tuesday, all these disparate efforts and crossover appearances performed well. Carlson's stream currently has nearly 3 million views while The Daily Wire's surpassed that number. The All-In Podcast is at over 450,000. And yet, for all the pronouncements and signs that cable news broadcasts are on in decline, putting together a sleek, live coverage event takes skill, money and tech. At times, the cracks did show. Bari Weiss' The Free Press hosted their own stream for nearly six hours. At one point, a microphone broke. Their election map consisted of cut-out faces of Kamala Harris and Trump being taped up over the states they won. The hosts seized the moment to ask viewers to pay money to subscribe. (That stream also hosted a whole lot of DIY podcasters — the women behind Red Scare, Mike Pesca of The Gist, the hosts of The Fifth Column and Shane Smith, of Vice Media fame, who apparently just launched a new podcast last month.) Most of the streams I watched referenced the New York Times' election needle and the news outlet's reporting on when states were being called. They might dislike the mainstream press, but they still need the outlets for some things. In lieu of their own bespoke election maps, many seemed to license one from Decision Desk HQ, whose logo could be seen on many streams. In some ways, the programs mimicked the traditional cable news broadcasts with discussion of the polls and maps, as well as correspondents calling in from the ground at Trump's event. But then came the distinctly podcast world randomness, the kind of flourishes that some people argue embody the medium's "authenticity." Bet-David interviewed former mobsters with their own YouTube channels. Carlson popped a nicotine pouch in his mouth as he kicked off his show. By the end of the Daily Wire's stream, the team was celebrating. Matt Walsh kicked his legs up on a table, and the team drank beverages and smoked cigars. They concluded with steadicam shots of the hosts walking out to a room filled with their team to bask in Trump's speech being projected on a big screen. Would cable anchors ever smoke cigars on camera to conclude the evening? Or celebrate an election? No matter — the rules of the old guard no longer apply here. We're living in a podcast world. | 
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