NC State is playing Boston College tonight at 8 p.m. on WRAL, which means regular CBS programming will be disrupted.

The plan is to replay the missed shows -- "Big Bang Theory," "Rob" and "Person of Interest" -- beginning at 1:37 a.m. at WRAL.

"The Mentalist" is still scheduled to air at 10 p.m. and if the game goes over, they will join that program in progress.

There can be exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb, this is how most game disruptions will be handled by WRAL during the regular ACC season. The local news will air in its entirety, and "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" will air after that. If you miss any CBS shows because of an ACC game, they will likely air after Ferguson's show.

WRAL suggests you set your recording device to record the entire block from 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., just to make sure you get everything.

You can also check CBS.com to see if missed episodes are playing there.

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to describe Bret Baier's rise at Fox News as meteoric. In just about 10 years, the Atlanta native went from starting the network’s Atlanta bureau (which consisted of a cell phone and fax machine in his apartment), to lead news anchor, drawing 2 million viewers each night. What many of those viewers may not know is that Baier credits part of that rapid rise to his two-year gig at WRAL in the 1990s.

Baier, anchor of the one-hour "Special Report with Bret Baier" (6 p.m., Monday-Friday), was hired away from WRAL in 1998 by Fox News to start the Atlanta bureau, and then moved to Washington in 2001 as their Pentagon correspondent. He became the White House Correspondent in 2006 and replaced Brit Hume as the Fox News nightly anchor in January 2009.

Baier will moderate the South Carolina GOP debate in Myrtle Beach on Monday (9 p.m., Fox News Channel).

We spoke to Baier by phone on Friday and asked him about his time at WRAL, his family in D.C., and how he plans to handle the big South Carolina debate. Below are excerpts from that conversation.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Heather Losurdo got into some spirited discussions during their joint appearance on WRAL's "On the Record" show.

The discussion opened with Losurdo saying her resume is "contextually accurate." She said she was offended that people would say that someone like her with her military background and organizational and communications skills couldn't do the job of overseeing $2 billion in small business loans.

The topic then moved to the recently adopted student assignment plan.

Monday's noon newscast will be the final one at WRAL for Pam Saulsby.

The station announced last month that Saulsby would be leaving the station at the end of October after 20 years there. Saulsby was replaced in the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts by Debra Morgan, and has been anchoring WRAL's noon newscast with Bill Leslie since the announcement.

Jackie Hyland, most recently from WPIX in New York, took Morgan's place in the 5:30 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Gerald Owens on Fox 50.

Saulsby's departure was announced as part of other changes at the station, including a new set and upgraded weather system.

There's no word yet on who will co-anchor the noon newscast with Leslie.

At last week's annual Raleigh Hall of Fame dinner, Mayor Charles Meeker addressed the audience of several hundred people at the Convention Center in his usual soft voice. That prompted WRAL's David Crabtree, who followed Meeker to the microphone, to suggest a new occupation for the retiring five-term mayor. "I've always thought you could work for the Golf Channel," Crabtree said, referring to the hushed tones often used by golf announcers.

Meeker visited The N&O today. He said he wasn't sure how he would use his time in upcoming months, other than practicing law. But he said he would not be joining the Golf Channel. "I don't watch much television," Meeker said with a smile. "And I don't play golf." 

--John Drescher

Rex Healthcare's medical-education television show, "Rex On Call," is moving to WRAL starting October 24.

The live call-in show will air the third Monday of each month at 1 p.m., right after the noon newscast. The show previously aired on NBC 17 on Saturday evenings.

The show's format will be the same: Folks call in with medical questions and experts answer them live on the air. Questions can also be tweeted (@rexoncall Rex now prefers

@rexhealthcare)  or emailed (Rexoncall@rexhealth.com or via web submission form) ahead of time. The first show on October 24 will focus on breast cancer and will feature radiologist Julia Taber, M.D. and oncologist Lola Olajide, M.D.

The Wake County Republican Party is taking a blame the media strategy to energize their base for the upcoming school board elections.

In this week's issue of the Elephant Express, Wake GOP Chairwoman Susan Bryant contends today that the news media is being "dishonest" in not covering the school board's accomplishments. For instance, she contends that a recent article didn't report that Wake County's average SAT scores are above the national average because "the N&O simply wasn't about to print anything that might reflect positively on the job the Wake County School Board was doing."

That story focused on how the state was doing on the SAT. It didn't mention Wake's performance or that of any area district. It also didn't mention that Chapel Hill-Carrboro has an even high score.

WRAL-TV is in the middle of major renovations right now, and the changes aren't limited to fresh sheetrock and high-tech touch screens.

The biggest change comes at the anchor desk. Longtime anchor Pam Saulsby is leaving WRAL after 20 years at the station. Her final evening broadcasts will be this week.

According to a WRAL press release, Debra Morgan will take Saulsby's place with David Crabtree at 5 and 6 p.m. on weeknights. Morgan has been with WRAL for 18 years.

Morgan will also continue to anchor the 11 p.m. news with Gerald Owens, who will co-anchor the 5:30 p.m. newscast with newcomer Jackie Hyland. Owens and Hyland will also anchor the 10 p.m. news on Fox 50.

Local television news outfit ABC11-WTVD will debut a new 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily newscast on Thursday.

The newscast will feature reporters Frances Scott and Fred Shropshire, and will lead into ABC11’s 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts.

“We at ABC11 are proud and excited to take the lead in providing Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville and surrounding areas with a landmark in the region’s local news coverage, the first daily 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. newscast,” said John Idler, president and general manager of the station, in a release.

The early newscast is another attempt by a local station to compete with market leader WRAL.

NBC17 went the other direction on the schedule, offering a 7 p.m. newscast.

If you missed Saturday's Scotty McCreery festivities, WRAL is rebroadcasting the "American Idol" hopeful's Garner concert overnight Tuesday (Wednesday a.m.) for your DVRing pleasure.

The concert will air from 3:07 a.m. Wednesday to 3:42 a.m. On your on-screen menu, select the scheduled replay of WRAL's 11pm newscast (or whatever it shows airing for those 35 minutes).

Check out our Scotty Day Dispatches for full coverage of his big weekend in town. While you're at it, enter for a chance to win front row tickets to the American Idol Tour show at the RBC Center.