I remember a long time ago when our TV station did coverage of the race for the federal Liberal leadership. It was important because it was believed the person chosen was expected to be elected the next Prime Minister of Canada.

But the counting of the vote was delayed for some reason and the race went on and on and on into the night - and the following morning. Eventually, most of the stations cut their losses and signed off their coverage, saying it was clear they wouldn't have a winner till the morning shows came on. 

Even the CBC gave up. But our news director insisted we stay on until a winner was named. It wasn't until 4 AM that the official result finally came in, and we were the only station on the air still covering this thing. By which time I feel confident to say at least several dozen people were still watching. 

If you had been in the control room that night, you would have heard the cursing and aggravation of the crew, who felt this was an exercise in futility by that point. And we'd all been there since before 4 PM the previous day. The guy in charge had a huge ego and wanted to be able to say we were the only ones with live coverage until it ended. And we paid the price for it. 

But at least the overtime was nice - if you could keep your eyes open to see the cheque. 

So when everyone signed off in this latest race, I can't say I blame them. At some point, you have to make a call to say this is no longer worth it, especially a single albeit important by-election. It was of intense interest to me, but I was not up at 4 in the morning to see it! And I'm guessing most people weren't, either. 

Although they all should have had some kind of story up on their websites, with the overnight skeleton crew writing a brief article on it or using CP copy. No excuse for that not being there, because every newsroom is staffed 24/7. You just didn't want the folks who'd been there since yesterday afternoon to be the ones doing it.

This major byelection upset  (and the Stanley Cup final) has been the big story on CTV News Channel and CBC News Network all day.  Both networks have had pundits and presenters for the Liberals and Conservatives on all day.  If you are a political junkie, it has been an interesting day on the news channels. CP24 was the first to get Tom Mulclair on with his assessment this morning. 

When I watch Provincial or Federal election result coverage, I usually bounce from network to network until I find the one that has the best information display. I also look to see who CBC/CTV/Global has as a talking head representative for each of the political parties.