For TV viewers tired of the attack ads and near-constant campaign coverage, Election Day can't get here soon enough.

But for television, especially cable news channels that have made election news their bread and butter for the past year, the end of this election cycle won't be nearly as welcome.

Ratings have been up across the board and left-leaning MSNBC, in particular, has benefited from interest in the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. MSNBC executives gave "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" regular Rachel Maddow her own series at 9 p.m. weeknights, and it regularly out-rates its Olbermann lead-in.

The campaign has also been red meat to Fox News Channel's conservative viewer base, while CNN, once considered the liberal network, even more consciously positions itself in the center, according to a study of campaign coverage by Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

CNN has stocked its election coverage with graphs that measure focus group reactions, its wondrous "magic wall" election returns map and a passel of pundits of every political stripe. The network also has launched a toll-free voter hot line -- 1-877-462-6608 -- for citizens to report voting irregularities.

Tomorrow night CNN will add new gadgets, including a 3-D hologram of the U.S. Capitol that will be used to show the balance of power in the House and Senate.

"We're taking a tremendous amount of election data and putting it into a form that's easily and quickly digested by our viewers," said Sam Feist, CNN political director. Correspondents from far-flung locations will appear to be in CNN's main studio using the same hologram technology, and CNN also promises better displays of exit poll data.

Fox News Channel declined to make an executive available for this story, but the network plans to debut a high-definition studio on Election Day. Brit Hume will anchor coverage beginning at 6 p.m.

The commercial broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC -- will begin election coverage at 7 p.m..

CBS's Katie Couric has emerged from under a dark cloud of media speculation about her future with the "CBS Evening News," thanks to her news-making interviews with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Webcasts that "let Katie be Katie." After CBS's TV coverage ends election night, she'll host a Webcast at 2 a.m. on CBSNews.com that incorporates questions from the online audience.

Early last week, while writing up a game plan for election night, "CBS Evening News" and "Campaign '08" executive producer Rick Kaplan said one significant difference from Election Day 2004 will be the release of exit polling data.

In 2004, early results began to leak out midday that some interpreted as signs of a win for U.S. Sen John Kerry. This year, the consortium that gathers exit poll data for all the networks will be sequestered, with no polling data released until 5 p.m.

"I think people misunderstand exit polls," said CNN's Mr. Feist. "Exit poll data was never intended to project a winner. Exit polls give journalists and academics an opportunity to see who voted and why and tells us something about the electorate."

By 6 p.m., Mr. Kaplan said, network news executives may start to have a good idea of which way the political winds of fortune are blowing.

"But we have a commitment not to go too far until a state's polls close," he said.

Pennsylvania's polls will close at 8 p.m.

"At this point, we don't expect to call your state at poll close," Mr. Kaplan said. "But we expect to call it soon after."

He added that the presidential race will be all networks' primary obligation, with Senate races secondary.

The networks of NBC, including MSNBC, will again project the electoral vote count on the side of Rockefeller Center in New York and a map of the United States will appear on the skating rink, with states colored red or blue depending on how voters in each state cast their ballots.

Virtual reality graphics will be used in a newly constructed studio where Ann Curry will offer exit polling data.

"Things will be growing around her, coming up around her," said Phil Alongi, executive producer of election night for NBC and MSNBC.

ABC will broadcast its election coverage from the "Good Morning America" studio in Times Square.

"Election night to me is two big stories," said David Chalian, political director for ABC News. "One is who won and why and how. And the other story is about this quadrennial exercise that takes our country's temperature every four years. Who are we as a nation, and what does it say about us at this moment in time, and where do we want to go?"

PBS's "The NewsHour" will begin prime-time coverage at 9 p.m. with anchor Jim Lehrer joined in the studio by regular analysts Mark Shields and David Brooks. That later start time isn't a detriment, said "NewsHour" executive producer Linda Winslow.

"We aren't trying to make sure we beat everybody to the punch. People aren't looking to us to do that," she said. "Our mission is not to have the best gadgets but the best brains."

Historian Michael Beschloss, Hotline editor Amy Walter and Rothenberg Political Report editor Stuart Rothenberg will be among the analysts on PBS.

By waiting until 9 p.m., polls will be closed in about 40 states, Ms. Winslow estimated. "There should be plenty to talk about at that point. I think what happens with our fellow journalists, when they have too much air time to fill, that's when you tend to sound like you're just filling air."

Even if the presidential race is decided earlier rather than later, Ms. Winslow remains confident that television networks will find ways to keep viewers watching.

"I'm sure we'll all contrive to make this an exciting evening," she said.

• BBC America will begin at 6 with David Dimbleby anchoring in Washington. "BBC World News America" contributor Ted Koppel will be in the studio to offer "big picture perspective and global analysis."

• Comcast's CN8 will have coverage throughout the day leading into live coverage at 8 until one of the two presidential candidates concedes.

• At 7, Current will partner with Web sites Digg and Twitter to bring Web coverage to TV with a real-time news feed of Digg headlines and tweets from Twitter, and music sets throughout the youth-skewing coverage.

• TV One, a network of lifestyle- and entertainment-oriented programming for adult African-American viewers, will begin its election coverage at 7.

• Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" will join to air a one-hour special at 10.

In addition to their regularly scheduled newscasts at 10 and 11, local stations will get cut-ins throughout prime time to update the results of local races. Other plans include:

• KDKA political editor Jon Delano and Stacy Smith will host a live 90-minute Web chat beginning at 8 on KDKA.com.

• WPXI's PCNC will begin coverage at 7. Results will update on WPXI.com with some coverage simulcast online.

• On WTAE, Wendy Bell and Andrew Stockey will anchor with Sally Wiggin interviewing analysts Jim Roddey and Bill Robinson, and Michelle Wright will handle Internet coverage.