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Local WTVR cut into CBS’ national coverage to report that Mark Warner has defeated Jim Gilmore – at least according to the AP.

Great.

Now bring back Katie, who just announced that McCain wins West Virginia.

Over on ABC, Times Square, where much of its live coverage is coming from, is heavily populated with people whooping and trying to get their faces on TV (many are holding signs that say “Investigate 9/11”).

Charlie Gibson has explained that there is a screen extending 20 stories up one building, while the usual ABC Jumbotron is also broadcasting live.

Cool. But it’s not as impressive as NBC’s map on Rockefeller Center’s ice rink.

Already on CNN, James Carville, Tara Wall and William Bennett have pontificated on the importance of Virginia in this election, with Bennett stating, “This is not your grandfather’s Virginia…northern Virginia, the Roslyn area, there are a lot more people there than the Richmond area. It’s a different state.”

Brian Williams on NBC just awarded the first two states—says McCain gets Kentucky, Obama takes Vermont.

Williams also quickly addressed the elephant in the room: “It’s a night Tim Russert would have loved, we’ll cover it here in his spirit.”

Network election coverage kicks off at 7 p.m. – that means you still have 10 minutes to dash to Krispy Kreme to snag your free Election Day glazed doughnut with sprinkles.

Then again, it took me four minutes to vote this morning, but about 18 minutes to get through the KK line on my way home from the office. But, if you happen to subscribe to satellite radio, you can tune in CNN and various other political channels on XM and Sirius to stay updated while sitting in the crawling line at the doughnut drive-in.

Speaking of updates, I’ll be with you all night to keep you informed about the latest TV coverage. The dual-tuner TiVos are working overtime and the multiple TV sets are tuned to CNN and MSNBC, which started coverage an hour ago, but, obviously, don’t have much to report yet except for trickling poll numbers from Indiana and Kentucky.

If you see something I don’t, feel free to post it here.

Who needs the commotion over Julianne Hough’s appendix or Cheryl Burke’s 2-pound weight gain when the most serious – and intriguing – drama in years finally unfolds tonight on live TV?

Cable will, predictably, get the earliest jump on election coverage, with MSNBC turning its full attention to the polls at 5 p.m.

The three major networks kick off their coverage at 7 p.m. (and yes, all regularly scheduled programming is being pre-empted), and this year, some unlikely sources, such as BET and BBC America, join the other usual alternative suspects, such as Comedy Central and PBS.

Here’s what to look for:

NBC: As in ’04, the ice rink at Rockefeller Center will be turned into a map of the United States and turn blue and red as results are called. Also in what the network is calling “Election Plaza,” McCain and Obama banners will rise 16 stories up the 30 Rock building, counting to 270, the number of electoral votes needed to win.

As for commentary, Brian Williams will command the coverage, with heavy assists from the always-reliable Tom Brokaw and live coverage of exit polls nationwide from Ann Curry. It will be a bittersweet broadcast, given the absence of the late Tim Russert, the dean of election night explanations. Let’s hope someone has a white board on set in his honor.

ABC: Go ahead, NBC, you take over Rockefeller Center. ABC has its own little area of New York cordoned off – Times Square.

The stately trio of Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor through 2 a.m., as crowds surely gather to gape at the three gigantor screens that will track the action. For the insomniacs, a special edition of “Nightline” follows at 2:35 a.m.

CBS: No doubt that in the last quarter of election coverage, viewers saw the Katie Couric we knew was always there – the sharp, probing interviewer who is also a pretty astute commentator.

Couric – who some still believe will exit the network before the next president moves into the White House – hosts CBS’ coverage from 7 p.m.-2 a.m. Then, at 2, she’ll turn to the Internet with a live Webcast on http://www.cbsnews.cpm and http://www.cnet.com.

MSNBC: David Gregory, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, zippy new addition Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson anchor coverage from New York, while “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough provides analysis and tries not to come to blows with Olbermann.

The channel will also appease night owls with live coverage with Chris Jansing from 2-6 a.m.

CNN: Wolf Blitzer holds court for “Election Night in America” starting at 6 p.m., with the heavy lifting shared by Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown. After a live midnight airing of “Larry King Live,” the network remains live with election coverage and commentary through 5 a.m.

But the best reason to watch? John King’s groovy virtual map, the “Magic Wall.”

Fox News: It’s Brit Hume’s election swan song, so he’s expected to guide the coverage from Times Square and Fox News headquarters on Sixth Avenue starting at 6 p.m.. Hume will be joined by Chris Wallace, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Greta Van Susteren.

Beginning at 5 p.m., http://www.foxnews.com will stream a live Webcast of “The Strategy Room.”

CNBC: “Your Money, Your Vote: Decision 2008” begins at 7 p.m. with Mark Haines and Erin Burnett until 8 p.m., then Dylan Ratigan and Maria Bartiromo handle 8-9 p.m. and Carl Quintanilla and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera steer the home stretch from 9 p.m.-midnight.

PBS: Coverage of “Newshour Election Night” launches a little later – 9 p.m. – with Jim Lehrer, Judy Woodruff, Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez and others talking to political analysts and historians.

BBC America: Names you never thought you’d see in the same sentence: Ricky Gervais and Larry Sabato.

“U.S. Election Night” kicks off at 6 p.m. on BBC America and BBC World News, coming from the BBC’s D.C. headquarters and anchored by the channel’s David Dimbleby.

But, yes, on the list of expected contributors is British comedic genius Gervais, Virginia quote-meister Sabato, Ted Koppel, Bill Bradley, Jay McInerney and Gore Vidal.

Comedy Central: What would an election night be without the witty skewering provided by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?

The satire masters will co-host the live “Indecision 2008” beginning at 10 p.m.

TV One: Only available in Richmond on Comcast cable (channel 41), the network will offer election night coverage for the first time, starting at 7 p.m. “Election Night ’08: A Vote for Change,” will be hosted by CN8’s Arthur Fennell, XM’s Joe Madison and Jacque Reid from radio’s “Tom Joyner Morning Show.”

For those hoping Jay-Z might break into a rhyme, Saturday night’s appearance at Virginia Union University might have been a slight disappointment.

But for most among the 2,400-ish people cramming the VUU gym, the mere presence of Hova – especially when he made a lap around the stage to shake hands with ringsiders on his way out the door – was enough.

In baggy jeans, a sweater vest, right-outta-the-box sneakers and a Yankees baseball cap that went over well with a crowd that seemed comprised of a significant number of transplanted New Yorkers, Jay-Z told the adoring throng, “For me to say go out and vote is one thing. But I want to see you. I want to look in your eyes.”

The purpose of Saturday’s appearance – which also included brief speeches from the godfather of hip-hop, Russell Simmons, and Kevin Liles, executive VP of Warner Music Group – was a final push to inspire young people to vote Nov. 4, preferably, as all on the lineup stated, for Barack Obama.

(For more on other Obama-related visits in Richmond Saturday, click here: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-11-01-0178.html).

Simmons appealed to the mostly young, African-American audience by recalling the landmark moment of Run-D.M.C. being played on MTV.

“When you put [them] on MTV, there were no black artists [on there] at all, except Michael Jackson,” he said, eliciting a chorus of cheers mixed with a few unhappy sounds.

But Simmons could have brought the Rev. Run and Jackson onto the tiny stage and it still might not have equaled the excitement generated by Jay-Z’s brief speech (fellow T-D reporter Olympia Meola clocked it at precisely four minutes and 25 seconds).

Jay did, though, make his time matter. At one point, he singled out a little girl pressed against the metal barricade surrounding the stage and stated, “She’s gonna grow up with the belief that she can be anything…that young lady, maybe she could be president.”

And with that, he flashed a peace sign, his mega-watt grin and shook his shoulders for a second to the thumping beat of one of his own songs that played him off the stage.

Sure, “The Big Bang Theory” is often hilarious with its brainiac dialogue and geek appeal.

And “The New Adventures of Old Christine” continues to be underappreciated for being a sitcom about ordinary things heightened by the broad comedy of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Wanda Sykes.

But the fall TV season hasn’t really started until tonight, when the brilliant “30 Rock” returns to NBC at 9:30.

It’s a shame, really, that the multiple-Emmy-winning-yet-still-ratings-starved show couldn’t better capitalize on Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin buzz earlier this month (instead, we got the unwatchable “Kath and Kim”), or even bask in some post-Emmy glow in September.

The waiting really has been the hardest part – but maybe “30 Rock” ’s late start will somehow benefit from Fey’s ubiquity.

Season three picks up with Jack Donaghy’s return to the hallowed New York building after a short stint working for the government in D.C.

Alec Baldwin is such a perfect network exec with his barrel chest and piercing stare. But his blustery exterior can always be punctured by Fey’s Liz Lemon, who greets him on the sidewalk in front of Rockefeller Center with the enthusiasm of a little girl opening her Barbie boxes on Christmas morning.

In Jack’s absence, the oily Devin Banks (the wonderfully melodramatic Will Arnett) has been running the company, much to the dismay of the staff.

Can you believe, Liz gripes to Jack, that Devin doesn’t know when to have the cake for the employees’ whose birthdays fall on the weekend?

Of course it’s done on Fridays AT LUNCH, Jack responds, shocked (!) at his nemesis’ ignorance.

But even though Jack is back, he’s not exactly in command, and watching him weasel his way back to the big office with the bay windows is a little wince-worthy.

Liz, meanwhile, has carried over her season two brainstorm of adopting a child and is tortured by the overbearing adoption agency evaluator – Megan Mullally, one of about 83 guest stars slated to appear this season.

Though the storyline is predictable – Mullally’s stuffy character takes issue with everything in Liz’s kinda-childproofed apartment and during a visit to Liz at work, the motley staff of “The Girlie Show” inadvertently creates all sorts of embarrassments – it’s the follow-through that demonstrates why “30 Rock” is the smartest show on TV.

Ardent fans might be disappointed that the goal of Thursday’s return is to catch us up and play out the loose ends of season two.

But make sure to set the TiVo season pass, because next week’s episode marks the show’s true homecoming.

Yes, it’s the one with Oprah – and let’s just say that a sleeping-pill-stuffed Liz getting counseled by the Divine Miss O on an airplane really is as bizarrely funny as it sounds and has a humdinger of a kicker – but it also demonstrates “30 Rock” ’s signature intelligence.

Jokes about the president’s approval rating, the Beijing Olympics and even Madonna’s freakishly sculptured arms are not only topical, but straddle the line carefully enough to appeal to people who read Entertainment Weekly or The Economist.

And even though we’d usually like to forget Tracy Morgan has a major role on the show as Tracy Jordan, the whack job star of “The Girlie Show,” his ongoing lawsuit with Jenna (Jane Krakowski, whose wide-eyed, hushed delivery should earn her an Emmy nod, too) over the pornographic video game he created last season is at least a useful subplot for his annoyingly manic character.

But it’s Liz who has our sympathy and admiration in this one, as Fey portrays her not with the exaggerated strokes of her other current character, but as a real person with a crooked grin, a wardrobe of jeans and tailored shirts and a totally relatable weakness for really bad junk food.

I know it’s almost a decade, but I still can’t get used to the sight of Joe Satriani without his ‘80s metal mane.

Friday night at The National, the bald-as-a-cue-ball guitar wizard shredded, riffed, pummeled his whammy bar and glided gracefully through two hours of cranked-up instrumental rock.

With trusty bassist Stu Hamm and nimble drummer Jeff Campitelli anchoring a meaty rhythm section and Galen Henson adding a layer of rhythm guitar (Henson also doubles at Satch’s tour manager), the music blasted off the stage.

Early in the show, Satriani praised The National and commented, “I bet there are some spirits floating around this place.” It was an appropriate opener for the new “Ghosts” (actually, an iTunes bonus track), that featured his two-handed tapping building into a frenzied whir that sounded a bit like a tape being played backward at high speed.

Even though Satriani is all about the instrumental – often an express train to Snoozeville after about 40 minutes – he’s always engaging to witness. In a taut black T-shirt, skintight black pants, bright red sneakers and his customary dark shades, the 52-year-old guitarist grimaced, smiled, pursed his lips like a fish and channeled every emotion into his strings.

Also adding to the performance was the LCD screen backdrop that flashed images of Satriani playing and other morphing shapes; though up-close the screen is reminiscent of a Lite-Brite, from a distance, the images were, simply, pretty cool.

One of the highlights of the set – aside form Hamm’s intriguing bass solo that included Led Zep’s “Goin’ to California” and extracted chants of “Stuuuuu” from the crowd (yes, it does sound like “boooooo”) – was “Andalusia,” the final track on Satriani’s latest mouthful of an album, “Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock.” Henson’s foundation of Latin-style acoustic playing became a launching point for Satriani’s stunning electric presence.

Though the almost sold out crowd of about 900 (reserved seats set up on the floor meant smaller-than-usual capacity) was largely composed of middle-aged men and younger longhairs who happily hoisted their beer cups in cheering Satriani’s prowess, there were plenty of women and more than a few kids watching Satch spread his sonic magic.

When you can attract that varied of an audience with hard rock instrumentals, it’s no wonder you’re considered a master of the craft.

You may have read that DJ AM—who, along with Travis Barker, miraculously survived a Learjet plane crash last month—had recuperated enough to join Jay-Z on stage last week at the well-hyped Hollywood Palladium show.

Turns out AM is also joining Jay for the rest of his tour dates, including tonight in Philly and tomorrow at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

There are still some tix available for the C’ville show. Santogold and T.I. open and Jay is expected to hit the stage around 9:30 (or so).

Details at http://www.johnpauljonesarena.com.

The New York Times announced today that starting next year, it will request the written thoughts of a certain Irish rock star on an occasional basis.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003877436

Of course, this will tie in nicely with U2’s new album - the one that was expected next month, but has now been shifted to early ‘09 because the band hit some kind of creative spurt.

But even if you disagree with Bono or think he’s a pompous jerk, the guy usually has something interesting to say.

Next month, the “American Idol” Davids will release their debut albums a week apart.

David Archuleta’s first single, “Crush,” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and now resides in the Top 20. Not a bad first showing – especially since the song is perfectly pleasant, but not exactly distinctive.

Winner David Cook, meanwhile, opted for a moody, slow-burning rocker – “Leave the Light On” – as the follow-up to his victory ballad smash, “Time of My Life.”

The song is rather dull and plodding, but Cook’s fans have already pushed his album, which isn’t out for almost a month, to number two on the iTunes album chart. Maybe he can even unseat the “High School Musical 3” soundtrack after he performs on “Saturday Night Live” next weekend.

But what has become of Jason? Carly? Michael? Brooke?

That’s the question posed by USA Today’s ace “Idol” tracker Ken Barnes in this interesting story: http://blogs.usatoday.com/idolchatter/2008/10/have-we-reached.html?csp=34

Barnes pointedly notes that the crew from season six – Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, our beloved Elliott Yamin, Bucky Covington and the final duo, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee – has fared the strongest in their post-“Idol” careers. But, Barnes suggests that Daughtry and Elliott might have reason to worry about their follow-up releases and wonders, are we “Idol”-ed out?

What do you think? Pining for something new from Syesha Mercado? And actually, did you even remember her name?