Betrayal. Mud-Slinging. Deception. Espionage. None of those things happened on my recent trip to the New Hampshire primaries, where JESS3 partnered with Google to deliver amazing and relevant data relating to user search trends. I did come away with some fun takeaways and a whole new appreciation for what it takes to pull off a live news event. Cheers to you, local news guys, for having nerves of steel.

The Show Must Go On — Even If You Need to Pee

Tina Fey makes a gracious statement in her book that the stress level of live TV pales in comparison to that of a TGI Friday’s waitress. I’m going to give her an oh-Tina-you-humble-liar condescending pat on the back for that one. If you think your job is stressful, imagine worrying about the possibility of an ill-timed streaker making you a YouTube sensation.

But somehow, these people manage to round up dozens of crew members, turn over copy in a matter of minutes, have all their electronic devices working, keep streakers at bay, and they may not even know they’re going on until five minutes before air-time. Impressive stuff.

Because the Most Famous Person I’ve Ever Met is the Miller High Life Guy

I was so pleasantly surprised to learn that not everyone on TV is crazy. I spent the greater part of Tuesday in a room with John Roberts, the Fox News correspondent covering the Google election data. I thought he’d come in after make-up and get handed a script, but he was in the thick of it, collaborating with us to make our data into a story. And then when we finally did nail down a script, he sometimes had only minutes to prepare. Touche, John Roberts.

I was also excited to ‘meet’ the Huntsman Daughters. And by meet, I mean they walked into a room that I happened to be in, and waved to everyone. That blurry iPhone photo will hold a special place on the background of my phone forever.

Tags: election, elections 2012, googlepolitics, new hampshire