Actually, it was a little earlier - right about 9:30 EST.
I took a screen cap, because it’s a thing of beauty. Up until about 9:00, the NYT had Trump about 20% and Hillary > 80% chance of winning. Then, as results come in, Trump’s percentages skyrocket and Hillary’s bottom out, until by 11:00 it’s 95% Trump, 5% Clinton. At that point, it must have been clear to the media that this was, indeed, their worst nightmare come to life.
Wonderful moment - and one they’re sure to do ANYTHING to avoid next time around by cheating and lying any way they possibly can.
It was at 9:00 pm; if you watch YouTube clips of the news coverage that night (sometimes broken up by hour), the calls and info available at 9:00 pm EST tell them they have a serious problem. They saw Virginia (home of the Dem VP candidate) wasn’t called quickly, didn’t get the huge margins they expected in safe lib states even as they won them, and they understood what that meant across “real America”. They delayed making calls (like Georgia) to boost morale, but they understood there were serious hurdles ahead.
The two campaigns in the final days foretold those problems; Hillary campaigning with the Obamas in Philly (for what should have been a “safe” state) while Trump hit the upper Midwest (in states that should have been beyond his reach).