HLN

HLN made it official today, announcing it will broadcast the 39th annual daytime Emmy Awards next month. The daytime Emmys will be presented Saturday, June 23 at 8pmET, at The Beverly Hilton hotel.

“HLN is thrilled to work with NATAS to celebrate some of television’s best programs and performances,” said HLN SVP and general manager Scot Safon. “Every day we focus on the news and information people talk about, and that has included extensive coverage of the Daytime Emmys in the past. This year, we’re very excited to also be carrying the event itself.”

At next month’s event, Barbara Walters will present Bill Geddie, Executive Producer of “The View” and the “Barbara Walters Specials,” with the Daytime Lifetime Achievement Award.

Anderson Cooper is nominated as best talk show host, along with Dr. Oz, Rachel Ray, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa and the doctors from “The Doctors.” “Anderson” is also nominated in the Best Informative Talk Show category alongside “Dr. Oz” and “The Doctors.”

CBS has televised the broadcast the last two years. In 2009, the CW aired the show. And in prior years, the Daytime Emmys aired on ABC, CBS and NBC.

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On the one-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that tore through Joplin, HLN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade” was live this morning from Missouri to report on the town’s progress. Meade was joined by Clark Howard, who reunited with a couple he met last year and took a tour of their recently reconstructed home. WATCH:

HLN is launching a new late afternoon/early evening program called “Evening Express.” As the name suggests, the format is based on the channel’s successful morning program, “Morning Express with Robin Meade.”

The show will originate from Atlanta and will air from 5-7 PM, beginning Monday, June 4. Ryan Smith will host the show, joined by Clark Howard and Ishe Sesay, who joins HLN from sister network CNN. Angie Massie will serve as EP.

From 5-6 PM HLN currently airs “HLN Special Report,” and “Prime News” from 6-7 PM. Those shows will no longer air, but HLN says there won’t be any staff reductions, as staff will either work on “Evening Express,” or move to another show. Host Vinnie Politan will continue to anchor during In Session, and we hear he will be getting a new daytime show soon as well.

More, after the jump.

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For HLN’s Robin Meade, singing in front of thousands of people comes much more naturally than delivering the news every morning on her show, “Morning Express.”

Meade, who grew up singing in her church, is now busy at work on a follow-up to her debut album “Brand New Day.”  The veteran morning anchor recently sat down for a “Media Beat” interview and discussed how performing has prepared her for a career in news.  Since singing is so important to who Meade is, we thought we’d post a quick video of her belting out some tunes…

Here’s the first part of our three-part interview with Meade in which she discusses the role of music in her life…

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Broadcasting & Cable‘s well-sourced Paige Albiniak scoops that HLN is closing in on a deal to acquire TV rights to the Daytime Emmy Awards. AOL is believed to also be in on the deal, as the official “social media partner.”

The awards honor talk shows, game shows and dramas like soap operas that air outside of primetime and late night. As Albiniak notes however, the show has had a rough few years:

The awards, which are taking place on Saturday, June 23, at the Beverly Hilton, are having an increasingly tough time staying relevant as daytime’s once glamorous and popular soap operas are being cancelled and replaced by talk shows.

Indeed, the Daytime Emmys most recently aired on CBS, but the network and production company could not come to terms for keeping the show there.

As odd as it sounds, the Daytime Emmys actually make some sense for HLN.

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It was a strong month for HLN, which posted the most growth of any cable news network in April 2012. Compared to April 2011, HLN is up +19% in Total Viewers and +9% in A24-54 viewers in Total Day. In primetime, HLN is up +20% in both ratings measurements.

The ratings for April, 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 373,000 Total Viewers / 128,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 257,000 Total Viewers / 99,000 A25-54

Three of HLN’s primetime programs showed growth in Total Viewers. “Jane Velez-Mitchell” was up +16%, “Dr. Drew” was up +8% and “Showbiz Tonight” was up +11% compared to last year. Nancy Grace‘s program showed the most growth, up +13% year-over-year, among younger viewers.

Additionally, HLN’s “Weekend Mysteries” block is up double digits — +82% in Total Viewers and +58% in A25-54 viewers for the combined Saturday and Sunday evening averages — compared to last year.

The full release from HLN is after the jump.

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Deadine reports Nancy Grace‘s thriller “The Eleventh Victim” is being developed into a movie for Lifetime. Jennie Garth will play the lead, Hailey Dean, an Atlanta prosecutor whose fiance is murdered. The character is loosely based on Grace.

Talk show host Grace, a former prosecutor herself, is executive producing the movie with Ted Bauman and Josh Sabarra. PR executive Sabarra, a longtime friend of Grace’s, was Lifetime’s head of communications until the company’s merger with A&E Networks.

HLN’s Robin Meade isn’t always tied to the anchor desk. In fact, Meade was back in Nashville this week working on a new album, a follow-up to “Brand New Day.” And then there was the time she jumped out of an airplane with a former president. How that all came about, in Part III of our Media Interview.

This and all mediabistroTV productions can also be viewed on our YouTube Channel.

• Part I | Monday: Robin Meade Triple Threat: Anchor, Singer, Songwriter

• Part II | Tuesday: “I Won’t Even Make a Face Twitch that Someone Might Interpret as Having an Opinion”

Robin Meade works for a channel that bills itself as the “News & Views” network. And while the HLN anchor keeps her opinions to herself, you just might hear her give her take on some of the odd stories in the news. Like the time a woman went through airport security with an “adult toy.” In Part II of our Media Beat interview, we talk about that as well as the news/opinion divide and her first day on the air at CNN Headline News: 9/11/01.

This and all mediabistroTV productions can also be viewed on our YouTube Channel.

• Part I | Monday: Robin Meade Triple Threat: Anchor, Singer, Songwriter

• Part III | Tomorrow: Robin Meade Cleans Up the “Dirty Laundry”

HLN anchor Robin Meade has been a performer all her life. From school concerts to beauty pageants, Meade has turned a passion for performing into an award-winning news career. The former Miss Ohio, who’s hosted HLN’s morning show since 2001, has returned to the stage performing songs from her album “Brand New Day.” In the first part of our Media Beat interview, Meade tells us how songwriting and news writing are not all that different.

This and all mediabistroTV productions can also be viewed on our YouTube Channel.

• Part II | Tomorrow: How “News and Views” Doesn’t Always Mean Opinion

• Part III | Wednesday: Robin Meade Cleans Up the “Dirty Laundry”