Calling it a “huge part of what CNN is going to to be,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker welcomed hundreds of guests to Porter House at Time Warner Center for a launch event for the network’s newest show hosted by Anthony Bourdain. “Parts Unknown” debuts Sunday night at 9pmET/PT.

CNN is, in fact, venturing into parts unknown with what Bourdain is cooking up. Bringing in a well-known non-news talent for a weekly one-hour travel/food/cultural awareness show is a departure for the network. Still, Zucker calls “Parts Unknown,” “the true measure of what we want this network to be.”

“We have a true television star in our midst,” said Zucker, who was quickly reminded of the dozen other on air talent in the room. “Not that we don’t have great television stars at CNN …Brooke Baldwin,” said Zucker, noticing the daytime anchor in the crowd, “You’re a television star.” We also spotted Anderson Cooper, (who dropped in before his show) Piers Morgan, Ashleigh Banfield, A.J. Hammer, Christine Romans (above with Bourdain and Baldwin) and John Berman.

Zucker heaped praise on CNN’s SVP of talent and content development Amy Entellis and Vinnie Malhotra, SVP of development and acquisitions, who began courting Bourdain a year ago. Bourdain had hosted “No Reservations” on Travel Channel since 2005.

“I’m grateful to be with CNN,” Bourdain told the crowd. “I got my official CNN ID today so I guess the cavity searches are over.”

The first of 8 original episodes airs Sunday. A second season is set for the Fall. The network is also developing a show with documentarian Morgan Spurlock, and this week announced it would add a Friday night studio audience talk show with CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos.

More pictures from last night after the jump…

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• Showbiz Tonight anchor A.J. Hammer hosts Showbiz @ The Grammys today at 2:30pmET and tomorrow at 4:30 and 7:30 on CNN. The half-hour program reveals the Must-See Things at tomorrow night’s Grammy Awards.

• On CNN’s “Reliable Sources” tomorrow, Howard Kurtz and his guests will talk about the GOP re-branding and how it related to Fox News.

• MarketWatch.com media reporters Jon Friedman and David Wilkerson were among 13 staffers laid off from the Dow Jones site earlier this week. The cuts come ahead of News Corp.’s split into separate TV/film and publishing entities.

• CNN has a pair of specials tonight. From 6:30-7:30 A.J. Hammer and Nischelle Turner will host a red carpet pre-show for the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, which will air on sister network TNT at 8 PM. At 10 PM Don Lemon will host a one-hour special focusing on Manti Te’o‘s interview with Katie Couric.

• Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman writes about new CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker: “The new boss has to do what the old bosses couldn’t quite do at CNN: make a mundane news day seem tinged with enough drama, pathos, emotional content and everything else that inexorably draws in viewers and keeps them coming back.”

• Ali Velshi had a confrontational one on one with House GOP leader Eric Cantor in Davos, Switzerland. The interview airs on “Your Money” this weekend.

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In a perfect example of corporate synergy at work, CNN has been busy hyping the premiere of Conan O’Brien‘s new TBS show “Conan” all day today. TBS and CNN are sister networks, both owned by Time Warner and falling under the oversight of Turner Broadcasting.

MSNBC and Fox News are yet to mention the show once, but a TVEyes search shows that the program was mentioned 20 (!!) times today on CNN.

Many of those mentions were on Kyra Phillips‘ watch during “CNN Newsroom”  this morning. The shilling seemed to agitate her a bit, if a discussion about the show with A.J. Hammer a little after 10:15 AM is any indication:

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First on TVNewser: HLN’s “Showbiz Tonight” is moving to 5pmET and will now air as a live program beginning Monday, March 29. The entertainment show will continue to run at 11pmET with updates if necessary.

SBT, which celebrates five years on HLN later this month, is produced out of New York and his hosted by A.J. Hammer. Brooke Anderson has been named co-host and will anchor from Hollywood.

“Showbiz Tonight” originally aired at 7pmET on the former Headline News, but was bumped to late nights when Glenn Beck debuted on the network in 2006. Beck has since taken his show to Fox News.

“Showbiz Tonight” had its best ratings year ever in 2009.

Prime News continues at 6pmET with Mike Galanos.

An entertainment show called “Showbiz Today” aired on CNN for 17 years ending in 2001.

“The View” co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Barabara Walters celebrate Behar’s new HLN show at the Plaza Hotel last night.

The famed Oak Room at New York’s Plaza Hotel was the setting for a party last night to celebrate the launch of HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show“, premiering Tuesday at 9pmET. The party, thrown by Behar’s “The View” co-host Barbara Walters, was packed with boldface names from news and entertainment and from all the networks.

In introducing Behar, Walters joked about her new show, “We originally thought it was going to go to Starr Jones. Then we were sure it was going to be Rosie [O'Donnell]. But finally, finally it is Joy.”

Behar thanked Walters and her “new boss” at HLN, CNN Worldwide EVP, Ken Jautz. “He found me. I was a poor little girl on a network show, trying to get a word in edgewise.”

Behar tells us she is a little nervous, but more excited about the new show. Her first guest, was Johnny Carson‘s last guest: Bette Midler.

Behar’s soon to be HLN colleagues were all there: Nancy Grace, Jane Velez-Mitchell and A.J. Hammer. CNN anchors Larry King, Anderson Cooper, T.J. Holmes, and Ali Velshi. CNN correspondents Alina Cho, Jason Carroll, Suzanne Malveaux (up from D.C. for U.N. week), and Jeanne Moos.

From NBC Hoda Kotb and Dawn Fratangelo; soon to be Fox Business host John Stossel, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Joan Rivers the Rev. Al Sharpton, Vera Wang, Lorraine Bracco and Alan Alda.

Behar’s “The View” co-hosts Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg were on hand. From CNN and CBS News Erica Hill, and her Saturday “Early Show” co-anchor Chris Wragge and his WCBS co-anchor, and former MSNBC anchor, Kristine Johnson

CNN executives Jim Walton, Ken Jautz, Susan Grant and Jon Klein.

We’d just arrived when guest Suze Orman began telling us her concern that there’s something fishy about losing her once-commanding lead our GMA co-anchor off. “It’s physically impossible to gain that much,” said Orman of the lead now held by Ashleigh Banfield.

• More pictures after the jump and Monday on TVNewser, an interview with Behar and Jautz…

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Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Don Lemon and Soledad O’Brien will host coverage live from Los Angeles, with Campbell Brown and Roland Martin anchoring live from New York, starting at NoonET Tuesday on CNN and simulcast on CNN International.

Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor live coverage for HLN.

> Earlier:

CBS News Plans – UPDATED…

Fox News Plans – UPDATED…

ABC News Plans – UPDATED…

NBC News/MSNBC Plans – UPDATED…

The cable news networks have been covering the news that Michael Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center after suffering a heart attack. At 5:20pmET TMZ.com reported Jackson had died after paramedics were unable to revive him. As of 6:20pmET, the cable and broadcast news outlets have not confirmed that.

• Fox News first reported the news at 4:48pmET, and stayed with Glenn Beck for most of the 5pm hour, with some reporting from Shepard Smith. Greta Van Susteren joined Bret Baier during an hour normally occupied by “Special Report.” Smith is anchoring most of the hour along with reporting from Geraldo Rivera.

• CNN first reported the news at 5:28pm during the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and have been in rolling coverage since with Showbiz Tonight’s A.J. Hammer and other guests and correspondents from Los Angeles.

• MSNBC reported the news during Hardball at 5:35pm and are currently in continuing coverage anchored by David Shuster. During a Q&A, In Touch Weekly‘s Tom O’Neill mentioned that TMZ.com had been reporting Jackson’s death which led to a discussion about the reliability of the report.

Depending on how this story develops, we hear at least one broadcast network is making plans to air a special on Michael Jackson‘s life that would precede their Farrah Fawcett special at 10pmET/PT.

> Update: Jackson pronounced dead at 6:15pmET. MSNBC sources news to LATimes at 6:22; CNN at 6:26. Fox News, more cautious, before sourcing AP at 6:29.

> Update (2): CBS’s Katie Couric anchored a special report at 6:22pmET. ABC’s Charlie Gibson at 6:24pmET.

> Update (3): CNN coverage includes long pauses to listen to/watch Jackson videos.

> Update (4): At 7pmET, CNN is still not confirming Jackson’s death, attributing the reports to other sources. NBC News (MSNBC) and Fox News confirmed it a half hour earlier.

> Update (5): CNN finally confirms Jackson’s death at 7:25pmET sourcing the news to the LA coroner.

> More: A 7pmET CNN interview with Jackson family friend Brian Oxman, who called in from UCLA Medical Center, may be very telling about what led to Jackson’s death:

“This family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson. The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him. If you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing in comparison to what we have seen taking place in Michael Jackson’s life.

This is something which I feared and it is something which I warned about. I don’t know the cause of all this, so I can’t tell you what the ultimate result of it’s going to be, but I can tell you for sure, when you warn people that this is what’s going to happen and then it happens, where there is smoke, there is fire.”

HLN’s Showbiz Tonight host A.J. Hammer made an appearance yesterday on CNN.com Live with anchors Reggie Aqui and Naamua Delaney, and after Hammer “dissed” Aqui last week, a response was ready. Scroll to 6:00 for the “bathtub” discussion. Happy Friday:

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