Each election cycle, all television news networks try to grab a bigger share of the viewing audience with flashy new broadcasting techniques.

Tuesday night, CNN channeled "Star Wars" in its election coverage with a virtual appearance by one of its reporters.

Video: CNN Hologram

Anchor Wolf Blitzer conducted an interview with a hologram version of reporter Jessica Yellin in CNN’s Washington, D.C., studio. She was beamed in from Chicago.

Instead of the common two-panel screen, a device rendered a three-dimensional holographic image of her in the network’s studio, simulating a real interview counterpart.

"It's like I follow in the tradition of Princess Leia," an excited Yellin told Blitzer.

Yellin described the technique to Blitzer, noting that she was really standing in tent in a Chicago that took technicians about three weeks to build. She said that she was surrounded in a circle of 35 high-definition cameras, which shot her body from different angles.

In total, it took about 44 cameras and 30 computers to capture a 360-degree image of Yellin, according to USA Today, which got an exclusive preview of the technique.

The cost of the experiment was not released; however, CNN states to be on its budget.

The cable news giant wasn't the only media outlet to go high-tech Tuesday night. NBC News used Rockefeller Center's skating rink as its election map and states as they were called -- and its cable news counterpart, MSNBC, had virtual 3-D bar graphs rise from a rotunda-like "marble floor" alongside news correspondent Ann Curry.

Meanwhile, ABC News put three giant video screens in Times Square, where correspondent Bill Weir got reactions from people watching the vote count; and CBS' Katie Couric headed into a Webcast once her TV coverage ended.