In Berlin, some 1000 guests from politics, business, media and society dropped by Bertelsmann’s Berlin premises for the big US Elections party during the course of election night. The party was jointly hosted by the TV channels CNN, RTL Television and N-TV, the American Academy and the American embassy.

After a welcome by N-TV moderator Heiner Bremer, US Embassy envoy John M. Koenig, and Dr. Gary Smith, Director of the American Academy, guests were treated to a varied programme with a live talk as well as numerous live feeds and expert commentaries. Many guests took the opportunity to share their thoughts well into the early morning hours against a backdrop of Jazz and an American buffet. RTL Television, N-TV and CNN’s election coverage was broadcast to numerous screens throughout the building, and in a special poll conducted on the premises, 95 per cent of guests “voted” for the Democratic candidate.

From 0:30, RTL Television and N-TV jointly broadcast the US elections. Between 0:30 and 3:00, the average market share in the target demographic was no less than 15.4 per cent, putting the two channels well ahead of ZDF and ARD. Total audience share was 13.3 per cent. RTL Nachtjournal, which had already started covering the elections at midnight, scored 17.7 per cent of the 14 to 49 viewer market.

From midnight till 4:30, the special correspondents of RTL Radio France, led by Georges Lang, closely covered the US presidential elections live from New York. Philippe Antoine, permanent correspondent of RTL Radio in the US, Isabelle Dath, journalist in politics, David Glaser, reporter in the streets of Manhattan, Rémy Sulmont from the headquarters of Barack Obama in Chicago, Myriam Alma, closely following McCain in Arizona, covered the outcome of these historic elections and gave the floor to American analysts invited to comment live on the results.

From 7:00 till 9:30 , Vincent Parizot presented RTL Matin live from the Grand Hôtel Intercontinental in Paris, in cooperation with the embassy of the United States and the International Herald Tribune. During two and a half hours, the entire editorial staff, gathered around Vincent Parizot, contributed live reports and comments. At 7:50, Jean-Michel Aphatie interviewed Bernard Kouchner, French Foreign Secretary, who delivered his very first comments on the result of the elections. At 8:35, the auditors had the opportunity to talk with the specialists of the news department, Jean-Michel Aphatie and Franz-Olivier Giesbert. The morning programme continued with interviews and comments by numerous  prestigious guests.

The news programme Le Journal de 19 heures on RTL-TVI, which delved deep into the US elections, drew 45.8 per cent of the early-evening viewer market, far more than the public TV channel La Une’s news, which scored 31.8 per cent.

The RTL 4 special Obama vs. McCain, which was broadcast starting at 22:30, reached 362,000 viewers and a market share of 12.4 per cent in the target group of 20 to 49 year old shoppers.