None of this was in the script.

The presidential election had obsessed the news media for a year and a half. The rise of Donald J. Trump from reality host to presidential nominee had been wall-to-wall on television news.

But during election-night coverage, it seemed that hardly anyone involved, deep down, had truly prepared for the possibility that the candidate they fixated on for months might become president.

Early in the evening, in fact, it didn’t even seem as if Mr. Trump’s campaign saw it coming. Before the first polls closed, the tea leaves were spilling and recriminations starting.

The Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that the campaign was disappointed not to have had more support from the Republican establishment. CNN’s Jim Acosta quoted a senior Trump adviser as saying, “It will take a miracle for us to win.”