Compiled by Somi Das, Arunabh Saikia, Ranjan Crasta, Venkateshwaran Selvaraj

We spoke to the few journalists who are not sitting in various news channels discussing the polls or filing news reports on the polls, and asked them to rate the results coverage on various news channels. Here’s what they had to say.

Shivam Vij, Associate Editor, Scroll

NDTV was the fastest and most sober in presentation. Karan Thapar brought seriousness in his analysis. Arnab should know too much shouting doesn’t increase the speed of getting the numbers.

Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Independent Journalist

My first live election coverage was in 1996 for NDTV that went on for four days from May 8 to 10. It was the longest running election programme that went on for 40 hours. We had prepared a 21-page booklet to detail how the entire team should cover counting day. I still have the booklet with me. My former colleague Rajdeep was at the Congress HQ, Barkha at the BJP HQ, Sreenivasan Jain at JD and ArnabGoswami was covering the Left Front. Prannoy Roy then was the uncontested face of election coverage.

Media coverage has since changed with hundreds of channels and real time digital media taking over. But I think NDTV and the two channels CNN-IBN and Times Now led by old NDTV faces, Rajdeep and Arnab continue to make news on the day of reckoning. CNN-IBN had a friendly coverage moving seamlessly from infographics, a good panel, discussions with a sense of humour and sound bites thrown in between. Trivia always makes for interesting viewing in a game that is all about numbers. NDTV follows closely with their alwaysgood graphics, and elections in India naturally means Prannoy Roy. I missed being part of it, first time since 1996. So have a lot of others who added up to the NDTV coverage. Times Now as usual had a high decibel discussion which distracts the viewer from the information and the screen was too cluttered and crowded with information fading in and out far too much for the eyes to make sense.

Saikat Datta, Editor (National Security), Hindustan Times

When it comes to political analysis Rajdeep beats everyone hands down. No one comes close to him in terms of depth and articulation.

Anand Ranganathan, Columnist, Newslaundry.com

I think most English news channels could’ve done better with their election coverage, especially of opinion and exit polls. Times Now’s graphics were over the top.In the case of Headlines Today, it was their studio design. I liked watching the Hindi channels more, for strangely the rhetoric was subdued and the panelists weren’t blinkered as much as they were on the English channels. I liked the NDTV 24×7 opinion poll when it came on a fortnight ago. Barring the staccato delivery of Prannoy Roy, the analysis was good and without the usual dose of shrillness we’ve come to expect from news channels. What viewers expect from panelists is sharp to-the-point analysis, devoid of ideological subjectivity and oneness of views. Sadly, all English channels failed to deliver in this respect. Same old panelists, age-wise too.

Indrajit Hazra, Independent Journalist

CNN-IBN had the best analysis with the right amount of poll excitement and reliability quotient. Uncluttered, without being lazy with Rajdeep egging panelists on.NDTV India had clear-cut reactions and straight-batted questions and responses. Best channel to follow party responses.

NDTV 24×7 was sober, but Sleeping Beauty-sober. And the graphics fly in and out before Prannoy can latch on to them. Times Now was LOUD as usual, but entertaining. But what’s with those nine-and-counting simultaneous graphics on the screen (minus the main show in the rectangle)? Epileptics stay away. Headlines Today had a jaded panel which had woken up too early, except for Karan Thapar who played headmaster to class monitor Rahul Kanwal.

 Prayaag Akbar, Associate Editor, Sunday Guardian

My favourite moment was Rajdeep turning meteorologist.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, “you have not been good to us”.

Rajdeep (fraught): “…but, but, I have been calling it a monsoon! Not a wave, a Modi Monsoon!”

And are they having an internal bet at Times Now to see how many analysts they can fit into a studio?Headlines Today was the most measured–so nice not to be yelled at, guys–but their relative solemnity didn’t quite gel with the cartoon graphics of Modi dancing, Rahul sobbing and everyone from Nitish to Mehbooba Mufti.

Jonathan Shainin, News Editor, New Yorker

I’ve only watched Arnab. I have to go to sleep, though. Let me say only that nobody runs a circus like he does — and I mean that as a compliment. I suspect there is better or more careful analysis on other channels, but there is no way they are more entertaining.

Vivek Kaul, Columnist, Firstpost

I stuck to watching CNN-IBN today primarily because they had a diverse panel analysing the results.Panelists ranged from P Sainath to Dr Surjit Bhalla. Ram Guha was excellent as always and provided a historical perspective. Even Aakar Patel got around to saying nice things about Narendra Modi, for a change. I tried watching NDTV briefly, but their graphics were a little jarring. On Times Now,Arnab was just too loud for my taste. On the flip side, CNN-IBN was a little slow with the leads and the results initially, though by 12 noon they seemed to have caught up.

Rupa Subramanya, Consulting Editor, Business Standard

Headline’s Today has the best analysis and data. NDTV was the most disappointing. CNN-IBN somewhere in between.  Times Now – let’s not go there.

Sandip Roy, Senior Editor (Culture), Firstpost

The channels aren’t that far apart – they all pretty much have the same format. Including a schoolteacher like reporter with a pointer going through giant displays with every Bengal candidate in the reckoning.

Except ETV has giant numbers as if it’s a children’s building blocks number games and periodically flashes Election Results Live in case you thought you were watching a soap opera. NewsTime has a weird red blue and white backdrop as if we are in the US of A and they seem to be getting their data from some time warp showing old margins. ABP Ananda was doing viewers the favour of telling them exactly how long the news break would be so you knew you had exactly 55 seconds for a pee-break. Their graphics were good. And I liked that they had a column with state numbers, one row with Bengal numbers and one row with national numbers. Elections at a glance nicely

I actually liked the Bengali channels who were a little calmer and not as obsessed with spinning columns of numbers like some of their English counterparts. NDTV,I actually had to squint to see the numbers and I think Prannoy Roy was having the same problem. And my cable carriers symbol is right on top of their right hand corner box which tells me who won and who lost. So I just see Hema Malini, but don’t know what actually happened to her.