After Fast Romney Win, TV Analysts Shift Focus to South Carolina Seconds before the correspondent Carl Cameron came on Fox News for a live report from Mitt Romney's victory party in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday night, he spotted two of the candidate's top advisers dancing to the music being piped into the room. Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times The Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron reporting on the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. "To say that they're elated is an understatement," he told viewers, noting that Mr. Romney had placed first in the New Hampshire primary by double digits. The advisers" euphoria, however, was not shared by conservative commentators on Fox News and other networks. While their comments were not outwardly negative, they, and many other news organizations, suggested that South Carolina would pose a more important test - implicitly urging TV and Web viewers to stay tuned. "A pretty decent night for Mitt Romney," said Sarah Palin, calling it predictable. "This is a fine night, it's not a great night," said Stephen F. Hayes, the Weekly Standard columnist. When the Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said Mr. Romney had "became the presumptive nominee of the party," Karl Rove, a former senior adviser for George W. Bush, agreed, but immediately added, "He's got a long way to go." Setting an exceptionally high expectations bar, analysts like Mr. Hayes had said earlier that they were looking for Mr. Romney to come in 15 to 20 points ahead of his rivals. With about 85 percent of the vote in, Mr. Romney appeared to have a lead of about 16 percentage points. In a sharp change from the Iowa caucus night, when Mr. Romney was not named the winner until 2:30 a.m. Eastern time, major news organizations named him the winner of the primary as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern time. This result was expected; CNN all but said as much in a commercial early in the evening that declared, "Who comes in second may be as important as who comes in first." But Ron Paul was identified as the second-place finisher in the 8 p.m. hour, too, deflating what little drama remained in the coverage. The results were known so early, in fact, that Fox News ended its news coverage an hour earlier than scheduled, handing the coverage over to the conservative host Sean Hannity at 10 p.m. By then, talk had already shifted to South Carolina. In what appeared to be a first-of-its-kind development on a primary night, CNN set up a focus group of undecided Republicans in that state and had them watch the speeches in New Hampshire, then showed a graphic of their real-time feedback. "It was obvious to us that how South Carolina voters reacted to what happened tonight would be the next big political story," said Sam Feist, the Washington bureau chief. On Tuesday night, Fox already was promoting the debate it is set to co-host in South Carolina on Monday. A Fox News spokeswoman said that all six Republican candidates were eligible to participate, regardless of their showing in New Hampshire. Earlier in the evening, the Fox News commentator Brit Hume all but offered free campaign advice to Mr. Romney, whose history as a venture capitalist has been in the spotlight. "Romney will need answers, and he'd be wise to start developing them now," Mr. Hume said, before conveying a campaign-ready story about how capitalists wring efficiencies out of businesses and then redeploy capital to create more businesses. Bret Baier, an anchor on Fox News, suggested afterward that Mr. Romney "couldn't have written a better script" for the evening since he was able to give the speech in the 8 p.m. hour, when "everyone is watching." Similarly, Mr. Paul started speaking promptly at 9 p.m. Mr. Hume, however, joined other commentators in dismissing Mr. Paul's electability, stating that "he's got about as much chance of being nominated as RuPaul would." And with that, it was back to analyzing Mr. Romney's chances in South Carolina. The Web site Politico was already asking, "Is Mitt Romney unstoppable?" David Carr and Noam Cohen contributed reporting.