Coverage of Friday’s tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, will continue Saturday on the broadcast and cable networks.

On ABC, weekday anchor George Stephanopoulos will anchor “Good Morning America” from Newtown. Elizabeth Vargas will join him from New York. ABC’s Josh Elliott, Amy Robach and Dan Harris will report from the scene in Newtown.

NBC’s “Today” will also have the weekday team in, with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie anchoring from Newtown. Lester Holt, Erica Hill, Ann Curry and Willie Geist will contribute to the program.

Anthony Mason and Rebecca Jarvis will anchor “CBS This Morning Saturday” from Newtown. CBS will also preempt “48 Hours” Saturday night for a special report on the shooting at 10pmET.

Fox News will be live at 5amET with “Fox & Friends First.” An expanded edition of “Fox & Friends” will air from 6-10amET, and will be simulcast on FBN. The 10am-noon business block will be preempted for live coverage anchored by Jon Scott and Jenna Lee. Scott will also host an expanded two-hour “Fox Report” beginning at 6pmET. Mike Huckabee‘s program will be live from NYC at 8pmET and Jeanine Pirro and Geraldo Rivera will host their primetime shows from Newtown.

MSNBC will focus on the shooting during regularly-scheduled programming and will be live until at least 7pmET Saturday night.

On CNN, Ali Velshi and Jon Berman will anchor from 6-9amET. Soledad O’Brien will anchor from 9-11amET, Wolf Blitzer will anchor from 11am-1pmET and Don Lemon will anchor from 1-3pmET. O’Brien will anchor from 3-5pmET, and Blitzer and Kate Bolduan will anchor from 5-8pmET. Anderson Cooper will anchor from 8-9pmET,  Lemon and O’Brien will anchor from 9-10pmET, and Cooper will take over again from 10-11pmET.

On HLN, Nancy Grace will host a special on the shooting tonight at 8pmET. Dr. Drew Pinsky will host a special live hour at 9pmET.

• The New York Post‘s Page Six is at it again with another speculative piece about CNN. This time the paper speculates that incoming president Jeff Zucker may try to poach Ann Curry from NBC and give her a primetime show.

• Erin Burnett is traveling with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and will interview him for her program tonight. Tomorrow “OutFront” originates from Kabul, Afghanistan.

• In a meeting of the TV medical minds, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be a guest on “The Dr. Oz Show” Monday. Gupta will talk to Mehmet Oz about his CNN and medical career, and the upcoming drama “Monday Mornings” which he is producing with David E. Kelley.

The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz writes about Matt Lauer, and the pressure and criticism he has faced in the wake of “Today”,s ratings struggles and the maladroit departure of co-anchor Ann Curry.

NBC executives, including president Steve Capus, argue to Kurtz that the blame Lauer has faced is misplaced.

“The whole Ann transition really hurt us,” an NBC executive says. Lauer “was one of the few people who fought to do the transition in a different way—to take our time with it and not do it so rushed right before the Olympics. He wanted to do right by her, and we really didn’t.”

Capus confirms that “Matt had nothing to do with Ann’s reassignment. He does not make those types of decisions. There has been an incredible amount of misplaced blame on Matt.”

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Yesterday evening NBC announced a new role for “Today” executive producer Jim Bell at NBC Sports, and reports trickled out about new leadership at the morning show.

As it happens, B&C’s Michael Malone talked to a number of NBC affiliates in the days leading up to the move, and found that there is no consensus as to why the program has been struggling of late, but that the affiliates are optimistic the network will turn it around (subscription required).

“I think NBC News gets painted with the same broad MSNBC brush, fair or not,” [WSAZ Charleston-Huntington W. Va GM Don] Ray says. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 10 weeks before the election, people turned away to watch something else.”

Others deride what they say is a softer mix of content on Today. “My news director would prefer it to be more heavy news than fluffier—he and I have had that conversation,” says Derek Rogers, general manager at WMGT Macon (Ga.), who adds that he has not seen a difference.

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Jim Bell, the executive producer of the “Today” show will be leaving his post and returning to his roots at NBC Sports. The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter reports the change is the beginning of a series of events yet to come that will reconfigure the executive ranks of the NBC program seven months after it lost its spot as the most-watched morning show and after the tumultuous summer exit of co-anchor Ann Curry.

Stelter reports NBC News Group chairman Pat Fili-Krushel is likely to appoint NBC News SVP Alex Wallace as the executive in charge of the four-hour program, while looking for top producers for the first and second two-hour blocks. Wallace, who has worn several hats in her 7 years at NBC News, was just named EP of “Rock Center with Brian Williams.” She is a former “Weekend Today” and “Nightly News” EP and was, until the appointment at “Rock Center,” second-in-command to NBC News president Steve Capus.

Sources tell us no deals have been signed and no internal announcements made. Don Nash, a 24 year “Today” veteran and now senior broadcast producer will likely stay on.

Bell will transition off the show as the year draws to a close. He has been EP of “Today” since 2005, joining from the Sports division. Bell was tapped to oversee NBC’s record-breaking coverage of the London Olympic Games and is expected to do the same for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014 and the Rio Summer games in 2016.

• Former New York Governor and CNN host Eliot Spitzer will be on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN International program today. He’ll talk about Sandy recovery and the election. “Amanpour” airs at 4pmET on CNNI.
• “Rock Center with Brian Williams” will dedicate its entire hour to the super storm tomorrow night. Harry Smith, Tom Brokaw, Ann Curry, Richard Engel and Natalie Morales report. Thursday at 10pmET/PT.
• CNN’s Ali Velshi, in Ohio, and Christine Romans, in New York, will co-anchor “CNN Newsroom” Friday morning at 9amET with Sandy’s clean-up underway, unemployment numbers due, and the election just four days away.

The AP’s David Bauder is out with his story of regular Joes and Joans talking about why they’ve stopped watching the “Today” show. Bauder sent this Tweet in late September looking for input. And he got it. (Last week we put it to you, asking why you think “Today” is losing viewers. The poll’s still open if you’d like to vote, or see current results).

As of the week of Sept. 24, “Today” had lost 961,000 viewers (-18%) from the year ago period, and it’s down -29% in the key adult news demo. Bauder found a range of responses for “Today’s” drop, from the format, to story selection, to the host changes, especially the hiring and firing of Ann Curry and what, if anything, Matt Lauer had to do with it.

• Susan Wurtzel, 57, Germantown, MD: “Ann’s interview style was like chalk on a board to me. When she replaced Meredith (Vieira), I tried to adjust and accept, but she just didn’t work for me. Katie (Couric) and Meredith were relatable, empathetic and funny. Ann just seemed out of place.” (“Wurtzel tunes to CBS most mornings,” Bauder writes)

• William Runge, 46, a manager at an educational cable network, Winston-Salem, NC: “The PR machine at NBC spent an enormous amount of time and effort convincing me that the ‘Today’ show team was actually part of my family, ‘America’s First Family,’ These did feel like family members. So this is how you are going to treat a member of your family?”

• Lyle Nelson, 40, a salesman from Avondale, AZ, on Lauer: He’s “not someone I’d like to have a beer with.”

• John Friia, 20, aspiring journalist from Malverne, NY: “There is something about Matt Lauer, whether or not he was the reason for Curry’s firing, that has changed and I do not like watching the show anymore.”

Bauder found a third of people who responded to the Twitter request “cited its content for their discontent.”

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NBC News has shaken up its leadership team, promoting DC bureau chief Antoine Sanfuentes (left) to senior VP of NBC News, promoting David Verdi to senior VP of newsgathering, upping Ken Strickland to DC bureau chief and naming Alex Wallace (center) EP of “Rock Center.” For Wallace, it’s a return to overseeing a Brian Williams broadcast. Wallace was EP of “Nightly News” in 2007-2008.

Rome Hartman, (right) the former longtime CBS News producer who launched “Rock Center” as EP, will be shifting to the specials unit with a focus on election coverage.

Announcing the changes, NBC News president Steve Capus highlighted that the new executive ranks all came from inside NBC.

As you read the list of promotions and changes spelled out in this note, please keep in mind I’ve decided to stay inside our talent-rich organization for each of these moves – a real testament to the contributions of these individuals and the bench strength of NBC News.

Sanfuentes, who joined NBC News as a desk assistant in 1990, rose through the producer and executive ranks and was named DC bureau chief in January 2011. In his new role he will be Capus’ chief deputy at NBC News in New York. Wallace, who had been Capus #2, will remain a senior VP and will add oversight of “Rock Center” as well as “Ann Curry’s production unit and our health initiative.”

Verdi, a longtime NBC Newser, who had been VP of newsgathering, is now a senior VP, adding oversight of news affiliate partnerships and the NBC News Channel.

Joining Strickland in DC will be Meaghan Rady, once a producer for Tom Brokaw, who rose through the ranks and will now be deputy bureau chief.

“I’m grateful to Rome for his leadership, signified by Rock Center’s first Emmy last week for Bob Costas’ breakthrough interview with Jerry Sandusky,” Capus writes in his note, which you can read in full after the jump.

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“Good Morning America” wins its fourth week in a row. In fact, “GMA” had its widest lead on “Today” in both Total Viewers (+884,000) and younger viewers (+237,000) in more than 18 years. The week ending Sept. 21 caps off the third quarter and the ratings season for the morning broadcasts which saw “Good Morning America” overtake “Today.”

“GMA” wins the quarter in Total Viewers — the first time the show has won a quarter in more than 17 years (since Q2 ’95) — while “Today” takes the win in younger viewers with +117,000 lead. But the “GMA” win is impressive as it came during NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.

“GMA” grew its audience compared to the same week last year (+3% / +2%) while #3 “CBS This Morning” grew in Total Viewers (+3%) but was down slightly in younger viewers (-3%). The real story is how the “Today” show continues to struggle: the show is down -22% in Total Viewers and down down -29% in younger viewers.

The averages for the week of September 17, 2012:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 4.969M / NBC: 4.085M / CBS: 2.527M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.913M / NBC: 1.676M / CBS: 946K

The averages for Q3 2012:

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THR’s Marissa Guthrie peppered “Today” show EP Jim Bell with questions on a range of issues this morning. As “Today” continues to struggle in the ratings, and staff rumors abound, Guthrie gets Bell on the record about his future and “Today’s.”

When asked whether he regrets the decision to continue a Kris Jenner interview over the national moment of silence on 9/11/12, Bell says “probably,” adding, “I think more importantly than getting into one segment or one show, is to invite a broader comparison of the shows [Today and GMA]. The competition in this case has chosen to do a very different show. If you watch them side-by-side you’ll see. It’s worked for them in the short term. But we’re not going to do anything that’s going to hurt our brand and the legacy of the ‘Today’ show.”

Guthrie: Do you think the way the transition between Ann Curry and Savannah Guthrie was handled may have dinged Matt Lauer’s reputation?

Bell: I think it’s really unfortunate how that played out. And obviously the transition didn’t go quite as we had hoped. And Matt, I need to say for the record, really should not bear any of the blame for that. I’m the executive producer of the show. He’s not. He’s the public face of the show. So he’s taken some of this. But it has been wrong. And that fact should be corrected.

Guthrie: How do you overcome that? Do you think some viewers were turned off by that?

Bell: I suppose. But I think really one of the great things about being on the air ever day is you get to show who you are and you get to put on smart, relevant important programming. And Matt is probably the best guy to ever host morning television.

Guthrie: What’s your supreme ambition at NBCUni? Would you like to have some larger role at the news division or the sports division?

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