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Talking Trump and barbecue on Super Tuesday

GOP 2016 Debate

Republican presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, right, speaks as Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump and Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., look on during the CBS 黑料社 Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Greenville, S.C. AP FILE PHOTO

NEW YORK 鈥 Here鈥檚 a look at highlights from television coverage of Super Tuesday voting in the presidential campaign:

Trump鈥檚 podium

The broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC gave the campaign an hour of prime-time coverage, and Donald Trump put pressure on them right away.

Trump has dominated coverage almost since his announcement last summer, and was in the midst of a hybrid news conference and victory speech in Florida at 10 p.m. ET when the broadcast networks began their election specials.

That forced the networks to decide how much time they spent to giving an overview of the night, or whether they should train their cameras on the ratings magnet Trump. Of the three, CBS spent the most time on Trump as he spoke live and ABC resisted.

Trump鈥檚 strategy Tuesday melted some hearts. On NBC, analysts Nicolle Wallace and Eugene Robinson both said his decision not to give a traditional speech to supporters was designed to make him look more reasonable, even presidential, to doubters. Wallace, a former spokeswoman for President George W. Bush, has been a harsh critic of Trump.

鈥淭onight was an improvement over the last seven days,鈥 she said.

READ: IN THE KNOW: US 鈥楽uper Tuesday鈥 鈥 what鈥檚 at stake

Cruz vs Rubio

Republican runners-up Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio chose two different television platforms to speak to the nation.

Cruz timed his speech to supporters for the 10 p.m. hour when the broadcast networks were on the air for their specials, but they didn鈥檛 cover him. Instead, CNN, Fox 黑料社 Channel and MSNBC all aired his speech live.

While he was talking, Rubio made the rounds of the broadcast networks, giving one-on-one interviews to ABC, CBS and NBC to spin his rough night. It wasn鈥檛 easy: On CBS, Charlie Rose鈥檚 first question was 鈥淎re you getting out of the race?鈥 Lester Holt on NBC began by asking, 鈥淎re you disheartened?鈥 and ABC鈥檚 George Stephanopoulos pointed out, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e still without a win. How can you get the nomination?鈥

Earlier, Fox 黑料社 pulled away from live coverage of Rubio鈥檚 speech to supporters for a studio discussion of whether it was time for him to get out of the race. CNN ignored Rubio鈥檚 speech.

Talking Trump

Megyn Kelly and media analyst Howard Kurtz spent time on Fox 黑料社 discussing whether the media had been fair in spending so much time covering Donald Trump during the campaign at the expense of time spent on other candidates.

As they talked, half of Fox鈥檚 screen showed an empty stage at Trump鈥檚 Florida headquarters, over the headline, 鈥淎waiting news conference from Donald Trump.鈥

Over on NBC, Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie discussed how much the prospect of electing the first woman president played into Hillary Clinton鈥檚 campaign.

鈥淟ike everything else in this campaign, it鈥檚 been overtaken by events,鈥 Guthrie said. 鈥淎nd by events, I mean Donald Trump.鈥

READ: Trump, Clinton heavy favorites going into Super Tuesday

Feeling no Bern

Fox 黑料社 Channel is not feeling the Bern.

Along with CNN and MSNBC, Fox covered Democrat Bernie Sanders when he took the stage in his home state of Vermont to speak to supporters. But only briefly. Fox cut away from Sanders鈥 speech at 7:33 p.m. ET, while CNN and MSNBC stayed with him until the speech ended 10 minutes later.

It wasn鈥檛 like there was a lot going on. Polls were still open in most of the states that were voting at the time. Instead of showing Sanders, Fox cut to an empty stage at Ted Cruz鈥檚 headquarters in Texas, and interviewed conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer and the author of the book, 鈥淗ands Off My Gun.鈥

Mouth watering

Brian Williams of MSNBC seemed jealous of colleague Chris Matthews鈥 assignment reporting from a Texas roadhouse.

鈥淗elp a brother out,鈥 Williams implored. 鈥淧lease FedEx some pulled pork, corned bread and beans. I鈥檇 appreciate it very much.鈥

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