Soledad O’Brien has been tapped as the new moderator of the National Geographic Bee, TVNewser has learned. An announcement is expected Wednesday morning.

O’Brien will take over moderating duties from Alex Trebek who has hosted the Bee for 25 years.

The contest, which uses materials from the National Geographic Society, is designed to increase public awareness about world geography. Trebek is hosting the 25th annual event this week. The finals are set for Thursday night and will air on PBS at a later date. O’Brien takes over for the 2014 edition and her Starfish Media Group will produce the event in which thousands of schools compete for scholarship money.

O’Brien has another connection to Trebek. She was a guest on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 2009 competing against Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Michael McKean.

Trebek has said he will also leave Jeopardy! after the 2015-16 season. Notable TV news names who’ve been floated as possible replacements include Brian Williams, Matt Lauer and Anderson Cooper.

The studio space at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. is changing hands, Broadcasting & Cable’s John Eggerton reports. Next month, ABC’s “This Week” will vacate the space and return to the network’s Washington bureau, and Al Jazeera America will move in.

“This Week” is hosted by George Stephanopoulos in New York a majority of the time. ABC’s D.C. bureau will be home to Washington-based guests and for the one week a month that Martha Raddatz guest-hosts the show.

Al Jazeera America, which B&C reports will have both office space and editing facilities in the Newseum, is preparing for its launch later this year. The network recently hired Adam May, a local reporter from Baltimore, as a D.C.-based national correspondent.

The tornado that swept through Moore, OK quickly drew national attention, as cable news ratings from Monday show. You can see the full numbers here, but below are some notable mentions.

The tornado was picked up on cable news during the 4 PM hour, with the severity of the storm becoming apparent during the 5 PM hour.

• FNC: 4pm: 1.691M viewers / 186,000 A25-54. 5pm: 2.398M viewers, 364,000 A25-54

• Weather Channel: 4pm: 925,000 viewers / 302,000 A25-54. 5pm: 1.273M viewers, 464,000 A25-54

• CNN: 4pm: 645,000 viewers /167,000 A25-54. 5pm: 1.022M viewers / 321,000 A25-54

• MSNBC: 4pm: 433,000 viewers /81,000 A25-54. 5pm 709,000 viewers /135,000 A25-54

In primetime (8-11PM), with special schedules, the numbers were even higher, as people who came home from work tuned in to see what happened:
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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 352 | MSNBC: 153 | CNN: 343 | HLN: 206

• Primetime: FNC: 632 | MSNBC: 337 | CNN: 790 | HLN: 229

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• ESPN has laid off hundreds of employees, according to Those Guys Have All The Fun author Jim Miller and Deadspin. ESPN has had to trim costs in order to make margins as it spends big on sports rights and a big new “SportsCenter” studio.

• FBN’s Charlie Gasparino is profiled by the Journal News and Downtown magazine.

• Microsoft unveiled its new XBox, dubbed “XBox One” today, and TV is a primary component of it. Users wil be able to change channels using their voice, and “pin” their favorite shows to a dashboard. There will also be a “trending” feature to see what other users are watching.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 178 | MSNBC: 136 | CNN: 118 | HLN: 148

• Primetime: FNC: 186 | MSNBC: 174 | CNN: 175 | HLN: 154

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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 172 | MSNBC: 129 | CNN: 127 | HLN: 138

• Primetime: FNC: 162 | MSNBC: 171 | CNN: 116 | HLN: 124

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Adam May will start as a national correspondent at Al Jazeera America in June. He will be based in Al Jazeera America’s Washington, D.C. bureau.

May comes from WJZ in Baltimore, where he has been an anchor and reporter for 10 years. TVSpy has more on his career in local news.

“It was a tough decision, especially saying goodbye to our viewers who have been so loyal over the last few years,” May told David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun. “I now consider many of them friends, and I hope when they still see me walking around Baltimore, they’ll come up and say hi.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists is adding its voice of concern about the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into Fox News correspondent James Rosen.

“U.S. government efforts to prosecute leakers by obtaining information from journalists has a chilling effect domestically and sends a terrible message to journalists around the world who are fighting to resist government intrusion,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported on an affidavit that described Rosen as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in a 2010 DOJ investigation into the leak of classified information regarding North Korea. The Justice Department tracked Rosen’s State Department comings and goings through his security badge and also tapped into his personal email and phone records.

Fox News told TVNewser yesterday they will “unequivocally defend [Rosen's] right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

The broadcast networks are planning to give their news organizations extra space tonight to update viewers on the aftermath of the devastating tornado that ripped through a suburb of Oklahoma City. In addition to expanded evening newscasts, NBC and ABC will have dedicated programming to coverage of the devastation and recovery.

NBC: NBC News will have a special from 8-9 PM live from Oklahoma, anchored by Brian Williams. Lester Holt, Ann Curry, Harry Smith and Kate Snow will be among the contributors. “NBC Nightly News” will also offer an hour-long newscast to affiliates this evening.

CBS: CBS News will not have a primetime special, however Scott Pelley will host a special edition of the “CBS Evening News” from 6:30 PM until 8 PM, offered to affiliates.

ABC: ABC News will be offering a one hour edition of “ABC World News” to affiliates. Diane Sawyer will be in New York, with David Muir in Moore. In addition at 12:35 AM “Nightline” will be special edition dedicated to Oklahoma.

Also: Muir, Ginger Zee and Mike Boettcher will reportfrom Oklahoma this afternoon on “Katie.”