As Gov. Kathleen Sebelius finished the Democratic response, the candidates for President were being mic'd up and ready to go on the networks. As NBC's Brian Williams conducted back-to-back interviews with Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, Carl Cameron on FNC spoke with Mitt Romney while on MSNBC Chris Matthews talked with Sen. John McCain.

Coverage on CBS ended at 10:27 and on ABC at 10:30. Couric and Gibson filled the remaining time with correspondents and analysts but without candidate interviews. NBC signed off at 10:33 after the Obama interview; by 10:44 Williams and Tim Russert were adding analysis on MSNBC.