A newcomer on the election night broadcasting scene, Amazon Prime’s “Election Night Live” with Brian Williams, is a novel effort to disrupt the big-network monopoly on unpacking race results. The free, online broadcast is drawing mixed reactions, though, with its fever-dream-esque soundstage and divisive on-air talent.

Brian Williams didn’t come to Election Night to break news, but rather to put it all together. The longtime NBC News veteran kicked off an interesting American experiment Tuesday evening by taking to Amazon’s Prime Video to host an hours-long Election Night special that showed him using his gift of gab while his corporate benefactor

Brian Williams is hosting 'Election Night Live,' Prime Video's first crack at live coverage of a breaking-news event. Watch the cold open.

Amazon has firmly established its Prime Video arm in the sports streaming world, airing ‘weekly’ Thursday Night Football” each week along with a bevy of games from the NHL, MLB, NASCAR, MLS, and other leagues worldwide. It’s now expanding the company’s live streaming ambitions by venturing into live news.

While Prime Video hosts a plethora of free live streaming news channels from major U.S. and international broadcasters, the Brian Williams special marks a major step forward in creating original news content for Prime Video. It will stream from 5 p.m. (ET) on Nov. 5 to 2 a.m. (ET) on Nov. 6.

Amazon is launching an election night special hosted by Brian Williams. BI interviewed the show's executive producer.