As TVNewser first heard back in April, CNBC has named Kelly Evans as a new co-anchor on “Squawk on the Street,” the business channel’s 9 AM-12 PM program. Evans will effectively be replacing Melissa Lee, who cut back her hours on the morning program last month. She will be joining the current “Squawk” team, which includes Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber and Simon Hobbs.

Evans is moving to CNBC’s headquarters in New Jersey from London, where she has been the co-host of ‘Worldwide Exchange,” which airs from 4-6 AM on the east coast. She joined CNBC in February, 2012 from the Wall Street Journal, adding co-anchor duties to “Worldwide Exchange” in May of that year.

CNBC senior VP Nik Deogun made the Evans announcement in a note to staff this morning. Read it below.
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Just a few short months after the program debuted, NBC Sports Network is completely shaking up its early-evening show “The Crossover,” according to The Big Lead.

Dave Briggs, who joined NBC Sports from Fox News in January specifically to host the program, is being removed as co-host. Starting Monday, the show will have a new set, and Michelle Beadle will host alone, joined by a rotating cast of regulars. Briggs is expected to get hosting duties on another NBCSN program.

“The Crossover” was one of NBCSN’s highest-profile launches in recent memory, as Beadle was poached from ESPN (which wanted badly to keep her) and Briggs came from “Fox & Friends” weekend edition, which, while not as popular as the weekday edition, still does very well for FNC.

Telemundo has named María Celeste Arrarás as the co-anchor of evening newscast “Noticiero Telemundo.” Arrarás, known as “María Celeste” on her Telemundo newsmagazine “Al Rojo Vivo con María Celeste,” will appear alongside current anchor José Díaz-Balart. She will continue to host “Al Rojo Vivo.”

The addition of María Celeste is meant to help bolster Telemundo’s evening newscast, which–while growing–is still a distant second among Spanish-language viewers behind Univision’s “Noticiero Univision.”

Univision’s newscast also has a two-person anchor team, led by Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas. Until the addition of María Celeste, Diaz-Balart was flying solo on Telemundo’s evening newscast.

María Celeste has also appeared on NBC News programming, including “NBC Night;y News,” “Today” and “Dateline.” NBC is the parent company of Telemundo.
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NBC News is expected to name Deborah Turness as its new president, a source tells TVNewser. News of her likely appointment was reported this morning in The New York Times and The Guardian.

TVNewser hears an official announcement from NBC News could come as early as next week.

Turness, 45, is the editor of ITV News, the news arm of UK broadcaster ITV. Turness drew acclaim at ITV for keeping it competitive, even against the well-funded and iconic BBC News. Her appointment will end a three-month search for Steve Capus‘ successor.

She was the first female to hold the editor position, equivalent to a network news division president here in the U.S. She assumed that role in 2004, and before that served as deputy editor at both ITV News and Five News. She also served as a producer in ITV News’ Washington DC bureau earlier in her career.

ITV News and NBC News actually have a business relationship, sharing facilities and even correspondents with the British broadcaster.

Capus–an NBC News lifer–announced that he would leave NBC News in February. His last day was in early March.

Since that time NBCUniversal News Group chairman Pat Fili-Krushel has been overseeing the search for a replacement. Turness’ name first came up as a possibility last month in an article from the Los Angeles Times.

First On TVNewser: CNN senior VP of current programming Bart Feder is leaving the cable news channel, TVNewser has learned. His last day at the company will be May 24.

“Bart Feder and I have been in discussions over the last couple of weeks about his role in the company and he has decided that it is time to move on and take his career in a new direction,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker wrote in a note to staff this afternoon.

As is the case at most companies, with a new boss comes a new leadership team. Zucker has made a number of personnel changes since taking over earlier this year, both on-air and off-air.

We hear that Feder’s responsibilities will primarily be absorbed by trusted Zucker deputy Michael Bass, who joined CNN last month from syndicated talk show “Katie,” which Zucker helped launch.

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TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman weighs in on Al Jazeera America, which is currently on the lookout for a chief executive to run the new channel, which will take over the channel space of Current TV later this year.

Waxman has a list of names that she says are in consideration, and there are many familiar faces. Current TV chief David Bohrman is said not to be in the running, while Steve Capus is said to be “skeptical.”

One of the leading candidates, according to Waxman, is former CNN/U.S. chief Jonathan Klein:

Klein, who was fired in 2010, has the news experience and is believed to want the job. According to an individual with knowledge of his thinking, Klein believes there is a ripe opportunity for a news network to occupy the niche that CNN used to — in other words, hard-core reporting with serious journalists.

Others on the list include former CNN managing editor Mark Whitaker, former ABC News president David Westin and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.

The Daily Beast has “parted company” with Washington bureau chief Howard Kurtz. Kurtz of course also hosts “Reliable Sources” on CNN every Sunday.

The move comes just a day after Kurtz wrote an embarrassing story based on the idea that NBA player Jason Collins never mentioned that he was previously engaged to a women in his Sports Illustrated article. He did mention it. The corrected article didn’t make much sense without that hook, and was subsequently retracted by The Daily Beast.

A source at CNN tells TVNewser that Kurtz’s current deal with the cable channel will likely be his last. New CNN president Jeff Zucker has made no secret of his desire to rid the channel of long-time contributors that are more closely tied to the channel’s past than its future. It is not clear exactly when his current deal with CNN expires.

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Attention media executives: there is a new government official to suck up to. President Obama formally announced the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be the next chairman of the FCC.

Assuming he is approved by the Senate, Wheeler will replace outgoing FCC chair Julius Genachowski. FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn has stepped in as the interim chair.

Wheeler, a venture capitalist, is a loyal Obama supporter, and a pioneer businessman in both the cable television industry and the wireless industry. While the FCC’s primary oversight is of the public airwaves, including broadcast TV and radio stations, it also has oversight of the cable, satellite and telecommunications businesses.

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Following an interview with playwright Eve Ensler on NBC’s “Today,” Maria Shriver announced that she was returning to NBC as a “special anchor.” Shriver left NBC in 2004, after becoming the First Lady of California.

In her new role Shriver will report on the impact women are having on society for all NBC News platforms, including NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and even NBC Sports. She will also serve as editor-at-large for the NBC News digital properties. NBC will also be the broadcast partner for “Shriver Reports,” the next of which will be released in 2014, about financial insecurity for women in America.

“I’m really excited to be profiling people like Eve Ensler, women and men I call architects of change who are taking us out beyond all areas of human endeavor,” Shriver said this morning. “I’m excited to be reporting along with all of you about women’s evolving experiences in the United States as parents, caregivers, care takers. There is so much going on. I’m excited to be coming forward, as I say, going forward with NBC and all of you.”

Shriver was the anchor of “Dateline” from 1986-2004. She returned to NBC for Papal coverage in March, spurring speculation that she would return to the network in some capacity.

More information below.
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Sandy Cannold, Robin Sproul, Sara Just

ABC News is making some changes in its Washington DC bureau and at “This Week,” according to a memo to staff this morning sent by ABC News president Ben Sherwood.

ABC “This Week” EP Sandy Cannold has been named EP and senior business editor of ABC News. Cannold, who joined ABC from CNBC last September, will now be responsible for the network’s business and economics reports.

ABC is also promoting a pair of executives in the DC bureau. Robin Sproul, who is celebrating 20 years as ABC’s DC bureau chief, will add responsibility of “This Week” as its executive in charge. Sara Just will become the deputy bureau chief, reporting to Sproul.

It isn’t clear who the next executive producer of “This Week” will be, though the show now originates mostly from New York, so it would not be surprising if the producer is based there. Having Sproul serve as executive in charge can keep the DC influence intact.

Sherwood’s memo is below.
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