Only on TVNewser: Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan are preparing for the debut of their new daytime program on MSNBC.

The show, which will air live at 12 and 5pm, is expected to start airing in late January.

"Many people think it's tough to get traction during the day with hour after hour of straight news," an insider pointed out. MSNBC hopes the two programs will help boost Newsforce.

Crowley and Reagan were in Secaucus a couple of weeks ago to rehearse for the new program. (It was around the same time Crowley substituted on Scarborough Country for a week.)

Management still needs to assign staff to the program, decide on a title for it, and tweak the show open. (They may be re-tooling the "look" of the show over the holidays.) Crowley and Reagan may anchor from two different locations.

One of the highlights of the CNN studios at Columbus Circle is the view:

This picture is blurry and grainy (from my visit in June), but it's the view from the former set of CNNfn. But as CNN Headline News takes over the beautiful CNNfn newsroom, and builds new sets in the area, the view may be wasted. "Because [the sets] are for the new prime time shows (at night), they will be obscuring the window and the million dollar view of Central Park," a CNN source says.

Lots of new Headline News anchor positions are planned for the newsroom, and "I'm sure lots of Headlines staffers will fill the FN desks," the e-mailer says...

> Also: Confirming Friday's TVNewser report, another source says that Nancy Grace is coming to Headline News. "Grace will indeed be anchoring the forthcoming HLN legal show, according to CNN staffers in New York," the e-mailer says. Why won't CNN just announce the news already?...

Deborah Norville hosted a holiday party for Inside Edition staffers a holiday party on Friday evening after taping the show, a tipster reports -- the same day word came down she was leaving MSNBC. "Deb was in very good spirits at the party. She handed out gifts to EVERYONE...and did not speak a word about leaving MSNBC."

Meanwhile, there are "a lot of stunned Norvilleites today" at MSNBC, an employee says. Some staffers apparently thought the show wasn't going to be axed -- at least not so soon. Thankfully, their jobs aren't leaving when Deborah does; a lot of them are being kept on for "whatever is next," the employee says.

And as for Norville's baby, Inside Edition is on hiatus for the next two weeks. While Norville's MSNBC program averaged hundreds of thousands of viewers, Inside Edition averages 5 million viewers a night: "Deborah Norville is STILL a powerhouse in the TV business," the insider says, "promises to be a player for years to come."

> Update: 3pm: "I don't know who told you people on Norville's staff were stunned about the cancellation," an e-mailer says. "Everyone on that show has been waiting for the axe to fall for at least 2 months, if not longer. That was NO surprise and was actually a relief to many."