Here’s one way to guage how the Jodi Arias trial is captivating a sector of cable news viewers. Our anonymous tips box is filling up with comments, questions and theories from trial watchers who A) think we’re HLN, B) that we have a line Arias’ attorney, or C) we’re as captivated as they are. (Okay, maybe we are a little bit). Here’s a sampling from just the last few hours.

• why wouldn’t travis go for the gun instead of body slamming her? i don’t think he had one.

• Why doesn’t the Judge stop Jodi’s Lawyer from smiling and laughing while his client is on the stand?

• She is an abused woman. Where is her dad… what kind of relationship did she have with her father?

• O MY GOD,SHE IS SO VERY GUILTY SHE IS A MONSTER

As Alex wrote earlier, the trial is drawing high ratings for HLN which has spent the most time covering it. More proof: last night, HLN’s 7pm show “Jane Velez Mitchell” beat FNC, MSNBC and CNN in younger viewers and was #2 behind Fox News in total viewers.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 232 | MSNBC: 134 | CNN: 97 | HLN: 141

• Primetime: FNC: 327 | MSNBC: 224 | CNN: 107 | HLN: 184

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ABC’s “This Week” was the most-watched Sunday public affairs show among younger viewers on February 24, besting CBS “Face the Nation” by +46,000 and NBC’s “Meet the Press” by +99,000. “This Week” was also the only show to improve in both ratings measurements, +9% in Total Viewers and +10% in the demo, compared to the same week last year.

CBS’ “Face the Nation,” which won in Total Viewers, was up +2% in Total Viewers and flat in the A25-54 demographic. Univision’s “Al Punto” was down -10% in Total Viewers but up +11 among younger viewers. NBC’s “Meet the Press” (-18%/-29%) and “Fox News Sunday” (-6%/-21%) were down across the board.

“Face the Nation” won in both ratings measurements for the February sweeps period, averaging 3,408,000 Total Viewers and 1,016,000 A25-54 viewers.

Cable replays of “Fox News Sunday” averaged a combined 2,146,000 Total Viewers and 415,000 A25-54 viewers. Rebroadcasts of “Meet the Press” delivered 929,000 Total Viewers and 428,000 A25-54 viewers.

“Face the Nation” is based on the first half-hour only, as the full contiguous hour aired in just 56% of the country.

The numbers for February 24:

The strange murder case involving Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius continues to garner serious news coverage two weeks after he killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, on the cover of the current issue of TIME magazine, is the focus of specials on three TV networks in the coming days.

On Friday at 10pmET/PT, ABC’s “20/20″ will air “The Fast Times of Oscar Pistorious,” dedicating the hour to coverage of what happened the night Pistorious shot Steenkamp. Amy Robach leads the coverage from South Africa.

NBC’s “Dateline, which airs from 8-10pmET/PT on Friday, will be dedicating the 9pm hour to the Pistorious case. Keith Morrison reports.

NBC’s Peacock Productions is producing “Beauty & The Bladerunner” for the Investigation Discovery channel. The special will air Sunday at 8pmET/PT on ID, and features some footage from the “Dateline” report, as well as other material.

The tables were turned on Brian Williams at the 92nd Street Y last night as the NBC “Nightly News” anchor was interviewed by Jonathan Tisch, the chairman of Loews Hotels.

Williams reflected on the trajectory of his career and some of the major stories he’s covered recently, including the school shooting in Newtown last year. Tisch asked Williams if there are ever times during his newscasts when “the words just don’t come.”

“Showing up in that town, it was the saddest place on earth,” Williams said. “I sat in a car for awhile and I looked at people walking by. I was ashamed at some of my fellow media people who came out of their lives in New York, sometimes not thinking, ‘we’re laughing to each other.’ Camera people, print journalists, television journalists, people I knew, people I didn’t know. It just was such a crushing weight of sadness.”

Williams, who said having the responsibility of delivering tragic news is “not a cherished role for an Irish Catholic kid who grew up wanting to please everybody,” also reflected on some of the other devastation he has seen in pursuit of a story, like in Banda Aceh after the Indonesian tsunami and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Traveling to where the news is important to Williams, who said he has never once been denied the financial resources to properly cover a story, even during tough economic times.

“Things like transportation, things like airlift capability, moving people, equipment, me going to a story, it has never been raised. I have never been in a meeting in my 20 years at NBC where someone has said, ‘whoa,’” Williams said.

Williams described Comcast, which recently acquired GE’s 49% stake of NBC for full control of the company, as “terrific employers, very good stewards,” but joked that he will “miss the employee discount in locomotives.”

Williams also discussed how he got his start in television, a story he recounted last year for MediabistroTV’s “My First Big Break.”  Watch it after the jump. Read more

Both “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” saw impressive year-over-year growth last week. Robin Roberts‘ much-hyped return to “GMA” put the show over the 6 million total viewer mark, making it the most-watched week in more than 19 years. “GMA” was up +23% in total viewers and up +11% in younger viewers for the week. Wednesday’s show, which saw Roberts’ return, drew 6.58 million viewers, the most since the royal wedding nearly 2 years ago.

No. 3 “CBS This Morning” was also up +11% in the younger demo and up +16% in total viewers.

NBC’s “Today” show continues to struggle, down -8% in total viewers and down -11% in younger viewers. However, “Today’s” year-over-year viewer losses have slowed to single digits, from losses of -22% last fall. For the week of Sept. 17, 2012, “Today” drew 4.08 million viewers, last week the show pulled in 4.95 million.

And to give you a sense of overall growth for the three shows: five months ago (week of Sept. 17, 2012) the combined average was 11.58 million viewers. Last week, almost 14 million viewers tuned in to one of the three morning broadcasts.

The averages for the week of February 18, 2013:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 6.008M / NBC: 4.953M / CBS: 3.020M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 2.195M / NBC: 2.103M / CBS: 1.130M

• New York Festival International Television & Film Awards will honor CBS News Senior Executive Producer Susan Zirinsky with the 2013 TV & Film Lifetime Achievement Award. Zirinsky, thought to be the inspiration for Holly Hunter’s character in the 1987 film “Broadcast News,” began her career as a part-time production clerk in 1972.

• Katie Couric returns to Newtown, Connecticut for a special town hall episode of “Katie,” airing Monday. Nearly three months after the tragedy, Couric will show how the town is committed to ensure that their loved ones have not died in vain.

• Susan Lyne, who’s held executive positions at ABC, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Gilt, has been named CEO of AOL’s brand group made up of AOL sites including Huffington Post, Moviefone, Aol.com and Patch.

Unprecedented in modern times, the Papal departure was covered by a thoroughly modern media. From the complex (multiple live cameras and locations) to the simple (Twitter.)

As Pope Benedict XVI began his final day as the leader of the Roman Catholic church, the broadcast networks produced special reports early this morning, while the cablers went into rolling coverage for much of the morning. CBS broke in for their special report at 10:44amET as Benedict departed for the final time. ABC and NBC followed at 10:53 and FOX at 11:02am. Vatican TV provided a multi-camera, multi-vehicle production which was carried by all the networks. From the Papal residence, through the Hills of Rome to an awaiting helicopter, and the short flight to Castel Gandolfo, cameras followed, anchors commented, priests analyzed. As Norah O’Donnell explained on CBS, “19 high definition cameras carefully choreographed so that we can see this historic moment.”

On cable news, we saw the pairing of Chris Cuomo and Erin Burnett, perhaps a sign of things to come for CNN mornings. (As the Papal departure was unfolding, Jeff Zucker was introducing the new EP of the morning show, veteran producer Jim Murphy). On MSNBC, the news fell in Chris Jansing‘s hour. A veteran of Papal coverage, Jansing will return to Rome for the Conclave. Fox News had Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum anchoring in New York while Fr. Jonathan Morris, who has been with Fox since shortly after Benedict became Pope, gave analysis from Rome.

By 11:50am, the broadcast networks had returned to regular programming and by Noon the cable networks moved on to the other news of the day.

And as he was being driven away from the Vatican for the final time, a Tweet was sent from @pontifex, the Pope’s Twitter account:

Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) February 28, 2013

CNN has named Jim Murphy the senior executive producer of its new morning block, including its still-unannounced morning show, which will be co-anchored by Chris Cuomo. CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker made the announcement in today’s editorial meeting, TVNewser has learned.

Murphy is a morning veteran, having served as the senior executive producer of “Good Morning America” from 2006-2011, and EP of the “CBS Evening News” before that. Most recently he served as executive producer of Anderson Cooper’s syndicated show “Anderson,” though he left the program partway through the first season.

Before leading the “CBS Evening News,” Murphy served as a producer on “48 Hours” and the original version of “CBS This Morning” in the early 1990s.

It isn’t yet clear where Murphy’s addition leaves the morning program’s current EP Shannon High, though we hear she will likely leave the channel. We will update when we hear back. High joined CNN in November 2011 to revamp the morning show.

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With Pope Benedict XVI about to retire, the network morning shows all had interviews with Cardinals to preview the spectacle, and talk about next steps. “Today,” “Good Morning America” and ‘CBS This Morning” all spoke to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, while “CBS This Morning” also spoke to Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.

Teasing the discussion with Dolan, “Today”‘s Savannah Guthrie said that she would be speaking to Dolan “live, exclusively,” though clearly only the first half of that statement was true. Dolan, funnily enough, began his interview with Guthrie by saying “good morning Savannah, and good morning America.”