When it comes to elections, the media should be pro-debate, especially when no votes have officially been cast, but the post-non Trump debate coverage on Thursday’s Good Morning America on ABC and CBS Mornings dismissed the whole thing as a “fantasy land” that resembled a “job interview” in which the candidate has already been selected.

On GMA, chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl summarized the previous evening’s festivities, “we got to see a world, maybe it's a fantasy land. We got to see a world where Donald Trump was not a candidate, for a moment, for about 90 minutes in that debate you saw eight other Republicans debating. His name was not mentioned.”

This supposed alternative universe “It was a lively debate on some substantive issues and, you know, and people scored points, it was a pretty good primary debate and then you realize, we don't live in that world.”

Before host George Stephanopoulos interrupted him to change the topic to horse race-style analysis, Karl concluded, “Donald Trump is far and away the leading candidate. Did anything change? Not last night, but I think that if this keeps happening, if we keep-- if we continue to have more debates, Republican voters will get to see what that world looks like. There are other voices out there vying to—”

Over at CBS, chief political analyst John Dickerson also dismissed the idea the debate could be of any major significance, “It was a good night for Donald Trump for two—for a couple of reasons. One, there was no challenger that emerged.… It also means no one had a moment where a voter in Iowa could say, ‘You know, I love Trump but, boy, I was really interested in this.’”