News

12:23 a.m. ET Unbelievably, Obama's speech seems to have Fox News anchor Brit Hume just a little choked up. Maybe things are already changing in America. And so the biggest show on earth comes to a close.

12:17 a.m. ET Oprah is in tears. And so is Jesse Jackson. Hell, everyone in the crowd is tearing up. Somehow that seems to make it official.

12:09 a.m. ET Has there ever been a better political orator than Barack Obama? Possibly, but the man's game is on. Focused and sharp, he hasn't had a hitch in his entire speech. No one has ever been more masterful with the teleprompter.

12:02 a.m. ET All this and the kids get a new puppy, too. Only in America

Midnight ET Time stands still as Barack Obama takes the stage at his own party in Chicago. This speech will go down in history.

11:48 p.m. ET The giddiness over Obama's victory is evident on every channel, save for PBS, where two people are talking quietly. The BET host has declared tomorrow a national holiday for all African-Americans. "White folks are waiting for you to not show up at work tomorrow" he said.

11:30 p.m. ET Stop the presses: Oprah has been spotted in the crowd at Obama's victory party. And Steadman even came with her.

11:23 p.m. ET The camera keeps scanning the crowd during McCain's speech. Where have you gone, Joe the Plumber?

11:19 p.m. ET Watch for it: The moment John McCain finishes his concession speech, each pundit on every channel will point out that he made a "classy" move in not waiting another half hour or so.

11:14 p.m. ET Political analysts are crying all over the dial. CNN's Roland Martin can hardly get a word out.

11:06 p.m. ET Now, let's get the party started. Every channel is showing the raucous reaction of revellers in Chicago. Over on Fox, they have a small window of the party, while the political analysts are dredging up William Ayers and Reverend Wright. Brit Hume bitterly admits Obama is a "very likeable guy."

11:02 p.m. ET It's a wrap.

10:58 p.m. ET For old-school coverage, check out MSNBC's coverage. It's co-anchored by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. Modest set, minimal graphics and they seem to be getting results a few beats ahead of the bigger news channels.

10:46 p.m. ET True to form, the Fox News commentators are predicting dire times under Obama. Two of the anchors have their jackets unbuttoned, and political analyst Karl Rove looks sad. Over on CNN, Anderson Cooper is interviewing a hologram of performer will.i.am.

10:35 p.m. ET Bless the CBC, but their coverage looks like a community cable special compared to the coverage on U.S. channels. Their low-tech version of the magic wall electoral map is one step away from being an overhead projector.

10:27 p.m. ET The Indecision 2008 coverage really is the best thing on the dial right now. Toronto's Samantha Bee is interviewing people on the streets of New York in her inimitable style. She's using an old lady's voice.

10:21 p.m. ET Did BET just become the first network to call the election? One of their hosts just announced "This is the biggest day in black history since the end of slavery."

10:12 p.m. ET Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 coverage is in full swing. Although it's a live broadcast, co-anchors Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have dispensed with dishing results and the format has been taken over with reports from Daily Show correspondents Rob Riggle and John Oliver. It's a nice break from the other channels.

10:03 p.m. ET Oddly, now that the election seems to be drawing to some conclusion, some channels are showing commercials. Normally a presidential election is a no-fly zone for TV commercials, but not in the historic election. There are fast-food commercials on ABC and BET.

10:03 p.m. ET Wow, are the faces getting long over on FOX News. Host Brit Hume says no one could have survived the economic tsunami. Oddly, Fox doesn't seem to have a reporter stationed at the Obama victory party.

9:38 p.m. ET CNN's John King believes McCain's fate in Pennsylvania rests in the hands of blue-collar steelworkers in Allentown and surrounding cities. When he used the magic wall to demonstrate, it all makes sense.

9:21 p.m. ET Where is CNN's hologram? It made one appearance at 7 p.m. when correspondent Jessica Yellin beamed in from Chicago. Another appearance would be a nice break from all the numbers and charts.

9:11 p.m. ET Here come the projections They're different on every channel, except on BET, where the woman with the hair extensions is arguing with another panelist.

9:02 p.m. ET The election coverage on PBS is very, well, PBS. No flashy graphics or magic walls. No music, either. Just a desk and three PBS type guys sitting around and occasionally doling out results, with 74-year-old Jim Lehrer as host.

8:56 p.m. ET Why is the statistician working the magic wall on BBC World wearing a pink shirt and no tie? That's not the BBC way, old bean.

8:50 p.m. ET Election coverage is very subdued on BET, and a bit peculiar. They're not reporting results, but there's a five-way panel of BET contributors, arguing about the winds of change in America. One has very severe hair extensions and another wore her Obama-Biden T-shirt.

8:44 p.m. ET Former New York mayor and failed Republican candidate Rudy Guiliani pops up on ABC election coverage to remind viewers, possibly for the last time, that John McCain spent five years in a Hanoi prison.

8:36 p.m. ET CBC Newsworld fills the time with back and forth between Peter Mansbridge and Don Newman who chat about where the Prime Minister is tonight (a hockey game, apparently).

8:14 p.m. ET Long faces are starting to appear on Fox News, as Obama is projected to take Pennsylvania.

7:02 p.m. ET Nearly a million Canadian viewers switch away from election coverage and over to CBC for Coronation Street, which airs the first new episode since the unexpected demise of the beloved cast regular Vera, played by Dawn French. The character, not the actress, passed away last Friday. Starting with Ken Barlow, the caring Corrie regulars offer condolences to Vera's better half, Jack, while Tyrone claims to be in a state of shock.

6:56 p.m. ET CBS airs a very effective segment chronicling the past two years of events building up to the big night. The clip includes footage of Barack bumbling at bowling and Katie Couric confusing Sarah Palin with questions. "What an election" says Katie.

6:30 p.m. ET The mainstream American networks sign on with their evening newscast, and a marathon night of election coverage. On ABC World News, anchor Charlie Gibson has a simple desk with a map of the U.S. behind him. On NBC, Brian Williams sits on a Star Wars-like news set, somewhere on a rooftop in Manhattan. CBS's Katie Couric appears before a slowly moving digital image of the American flag, and likens the still stumping John McCain to the Energizer Bunny. Not much news to report before the polls close in an hour, but much use of the phrase "historic election."

6:22 p.m . ET CNN unveils its newest fancy-pants technology to explain the election to viewers: A dollhouse-sized replica of the U.S. congress, with little seats that can turn red or blue. John King and Campbell Brown beam with pride.

6:13 p.m. ET Each channel has its own banner-headline for their election coverage. CNN has Election Night in America, while Fox News has America's Choice. Also on Fox News: The Race Tightens

6:05 p.m . ET On BBC World News, former ABC anchor Ted Koppel has been hired on as their go-to election guy. BBC's coverage of the election is naturally bemused. Koppel predicts an Obama win would change the way the world perceives America, and "create endless speculation and great tension." Still with the cryptic words.

6:01 p.m. ET According to Wolf Blitzer, the McCain camp has been making a last-ditch effort in Florida today with a series of Robo-Calls claiming Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro is a good amigo of Barack Obama. The call is played and the English on-screen text translates: "Don't give Castro what he wants. Go right now and vote for John McCain." Incredible.

5:42 p.m. ET Canadian news finally breaks into Global's U.S. election coverage with the story that John Manley will not run for the Liberal leadership. Also: Canada's gas prices are the lowest in two years. Talk about burying the lead

5:34 p.m. ET Poor Kevin Newman. Global went to all the trouble and expense of sending him to Washington, D.C., to anchor the network's coverage of this, sorry, "historic election." Then his mike cuts out in the opening minutes, and possibly his earpiece, too, since he just keeps talking. These things happen, fella.

5: 22 p.m. ET Breaking news on CNN: Soggy Ballots, Broken Machines A correspondent in some small Virginia town confirms reports that some ballots became damp in the rainy weather, and that some of the voting machines aren't working properly. Wolf Blitzer appears concerned, then uses the phrase "historic election" for the 20th time today.

5:01 p.m. ET Thank heavens for small miracles: CBC's Neil Macdonald finally turns up on Newsworld's election coverage. A very smart guy, Macdonald points out the whole shooting match will reveal itself once results come in from Virginia, one of the much-discussed "swing" states. If Obama wins, game over. Conversely: "If McCain wins Virginia, we are in for a very long night indeed," he forecasts.

Macdonald was reporting live from Chicago's Grand Park, the site of an election-night celebration for Obama followers planned for later this evening. The victory party is anticipated to draw upwards of a half-million people. "Tomorrow morning we'll have covered either a victory celebration or a riot."

4:39 p.m. ET CBC Newsworld is talking to Tom Axworthy, a representative of Centre for the Study of Democracy, who doesn't necessarily believe an Obama administration will be a great friend to the Canadian government. "One of the first demands of a Democratic president," said Axworthy, appearing live from Winnipeg by satellite, "will be to extend the war in Afghanistan."

4:21 p.m. ET John King is warming up on CNN's Magic Wall board. No early predictions, but he claims "small-time rural America" is turning out in record volume at polling stations, supposedly a good omen for McCain.

3:45 p.m. ET Stop the presses: CNN's Rick Sanchez is holding a live and hated interview with Joe Wurzelbacher, better known to millions of Americans as Joe the Plumber. Sanchez accused Wurzelbacher of false misrepresentation (ie: he doesn't really have a plumber's license) and of 'thrusting' himself into the McCain campaign. Joe the Plumber suggested Sanchez look up the word 'principle' in Webster's dictionary. Can't we all just get along?

2:42 p.m. ET Every news channel has live coverage of John McCain speaking at a rally in Colorado and seemingly wheeling out every catchphrase in his playbook.

Ergo: "I've been fighting for change my entire career" and "I was never voted Ms. Congeniality in Washington" and, naturally, "Drill, baby drill"

Wife Cindy, forever at her husband's right shoulder, looks a bit peaked. No sign of Joe the Plumber.

2:30 p.m. ET Huzzah The financial crisis is over Well, not really, but all the major news outlets continue to report that the Dow Jones has steadily risen since opening bell this morning, presumably driven by the fact that Americans are going to the polls to elect a new commander-in-chief. MSNBC has declared it an "Amazing Election Day Rally" Closer to home, the loonie has jumped two cents, so we must sharing the excitement by proximity.

2:21 p.m. ET This just in on Fox News: More ugliness in Philadelphia as one of the alleged Black Panthers at a Philadelphia polling station is engaged in an angry confrontation with the Fox reporter. The large African-American male in a beret insists he's there only for security reasons, and denies that he has ditched his nightstick.

2:13 p.m. ET Fox News is falling over itself with an appearance by William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard. The unabashed McCain supporter cautioned viewers to not believe the polls, and predicted: "We could still be here at 1 a.m., waiting for the final 20 votes to come in from Pennsylvania." Hope springs eternal in the Republican Party.

2 p.m. ET The Question of the Day on CNN: Why do we vote on the first Tuesday in November? A reporter just spent the last 20 minutes reading off a capsulized history on the electoral system.

1:17 p.m. ET In most instances, the news divisions of U.S. channels get busy on the day of a presidential election—but networks still keep their priorities straight: Not one of the major networks has altered its regular daytime lineup of soap operas, game shows and gabfest for election coverage. No viewer need fret about missing a chapter of One Life to Live or The Bold and the Beautiful, or The Ellen DeGeneres Show. And America probably needs Dr. Phil now more than ever.

1:04 p.m. ET So it begins.

Coverage of the presidential election began in earnest at noon Eastern Time on major U.S. broadcasters. And yes, Virginia (not the swing state), you can still witness the great divide of American politics on the nation's two most-watched news channels: CNN and Fox News.

Right at the crack of noon, the heat was on at Fox News, which has made its support of Republican candidate John McCain glaringly apparent in the past few months. The widely accepted assumption that Barack Obama is going to the White House has Rupert Murdoch's news channel warning of the seven signs of the apocalypse.

First up on Fox News came reports that two Black Panthers were blocking the doorway of a Philadelphia polling station. Next came the news that L.A.

Polling booths were already suffering power outages. Then came the oft-repeated reminder that the Obama campaign spent nearly twice as much as the McCain campaign. Fox anchor Brit Hume was already wearing his sour-lemon expression, barely 10 minutes into his shift.

Over on CNN, meanwhile, election day was being breezily covered. There was a feature on Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Ben & Jerry's ice-cream parlours handing out freebies to voters, and a far-too-long interview with BET personality Terrence J (a.k.a. "Supahype") about his efforts to register 100,000 voters across the U.S. There was also a report on two breakfast cereals named in honour of the candidates: Obama-O's and Captain McCains.

A CNN correspondent also filed a report from Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago, where volunteers were setting up chairs and hanging ribbons.

"One way or another, there's going to be some party here tonight" said the reporter.

More incredible: Both Fox and CNN are still running McCain and Obama TV ads in the commercial breaks. This is going to be a very long day.