“The Daily Show” took on CNN’s “Early Start” segment “Wake ‘em Up” where anchors Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin call up a Kennedy, or Ru Paul, or an unsuspecting man who isn’t Chuck Nice.

But Banfield is not going to let the criticism from her “absolute hero,” Stewart, get in the way of the segment. “You know what?” said Banfield, “If you thought you were going to tear us down, my friend. You’ve got another thing coming, Jon Stewart. Because we’ve decided to notch it up.”

The only thing closer than last night’s vote, ending at 2:33pmET, is no finish at all (2000 anyone?) With just 8 votes, Mitt Romney took first place in the Iowa Caucuses over Rick Santorum. The candidates are making the news rounds this morning after what was a late night for all and an early start for some, including CNN’s 3-day old “Early Start.”

At 3amET, CNN’s studio of stars was still going. “We are still on the air, long after we thought we wouldn’t be,” said Anderson Cooper, calling it “the special CNN after dark edition.” On Fox News, Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly stayed on until 3amET, with Baier signing off: “My flight back to Washington is in 6 hours.” On MSNBC Chris Hayes began anchoring coverage at 1amET and continued until 3amET.

Signing off at 2:39amET, FBN’s Neil Cavuto couldn’t help tweak his competitors on CNBC. “A certain rival network was and is in taped programming much of the night,” said Cavuto. “A historic battle in the republican party just got started and the so-called financial network of record is in reruns. We aren’t stopping, we are here around the clock.”

The earlier of CNN’s two new morning shows, “Early  Start with Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin” went on an hour early at 4amET after Cooper and company turned in. “I’m kind of looking for Serve Pro,” joked Banfield, looking around the Atlanta studio. “The election center just cleared out.”

This morning, at the end of the final CNN “American Morning,” anchors Alina Cho and Deborah Feyerick welcomed show staffers to the set.

“These are the folks who get up in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping to bring you this show and they do it with a lot of enthusiasm and love and energy,” said Feyerick, as the director took shots of the studio as well as the control room.

“American Morning” launched on September 12, 2001, with original host Paula Zahn anchoring five months earlier than planned due to the 9/11 attack the day before. It has been without a permanent anchor team since John Roberts and Kiran Chetry departed at different points, earlier this year.

On Monday, CNN’s two new 2-hour morning shows, “Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin” and “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien” will launch beginning at 5amET.

CNN will be launching its new 4-hour morning show Monday, the day before the Iowa Caucuses. Soledad O’Brien will anchor the 7-9am hours from Des Moines Monday and Tuesday with Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin anchoring the 5-7am hours from New York.

Last month, O’Brien told TVNewser her expectation of the program: “We want to do a really strong, smart show that people are proud of. The kind of show that gets people to say: ’I can’t wait to watch it tomorrow.’”

CNN says it will announce over Twitter the names of the new shows, soon.

> Update: At 12:09pm, CNN announced O’Brien’s 7-9am show will be called Starting Point (@startingptCNN). And at 12:19, CNN announced the 5-7am show with Banfield and Sambolin will be called Early Start (@EarlyStartCNN)

Former “Today” show supervising producer Javier Morgado is joining CNN’s new 4-hour morning show as Senior Broadcast Producer. Morgado, most recently a VP of business development at Latina magazine, spent more than 10 years at NBC News, at Miami’s WTVJ, NBC News in New York and lastly at “Today.” The new as-yet unnamed CNN morning show, which will be broken into 2 two-hour programs, will launch next month. Soledad O’Brien will anchor the 7-9am block while Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin will anchor the 5-7am block. Morgado starts with CNN Monday and will report to show EP Shannon High.

It’s been discussed for several weeks, and now CNN has made it official: Soledad O’Brien will return to anchoring two hours of CNN’s new revamped morning show, leading a team of contributors and guests from 7-9amET.  CNN EVP Ken Jautz promises the shows will “complement our direction in primetime.”

Ashleigh Banfield, the former MSNBC, CourtTV and ABC News correspondent and anchor will join CNN to co-anchor the 5-7amET hours alongside another new CNN hire, Zoraida Sambolin who leaves her morning show co-anchor gig at WMAQ (NBC) in Chicago.

Despite the weeks of speculation, insiders tell us O’Brien only sealed her new deal Tuesday. And just yesterday, Shannon High — recruited from NBC to be the EP of the four-hour morning block — signed her deal with CNN. The shows will launch in January.

Release after the jump…

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TVNewser has learned Shannon High is leaving NBC’s Peacock Productions to join CNN where she will oversee the new four-hour morning show. An announcement on the hire, and the new show, could come as early as tomorrow.

High joined MSNBC in 2007 as VP of daytime programs. Two years later she moved to Dylan Ratigan‘s program which was about to launch. Last summer she moved to NBC’s production company, Peacock Productions.

As we’ve reported, the new CNN morning show includes a return to mornings for Soledad O’Brien, who will anchor the 7-9amET show and a return to Turner Broadcasting for Ashleigh Banfield who will co-anchor the 5-7am hours along with Zoraida Sambolin, who’s joining from WMAQ in Chicago. The new show will launch in the New Year.

What we first reported in September, is about to happen at CNN. Soledad O’Brien who has been CNN’s lead documentary correspondent, will return to anchoring mornings. O’Brien anchored “American Morning” from 2003 to 2007.

The morning shuffle, which could be announced this week, will come nearly a year after the last permanent anchor team split. John Roberts moved to Atlanta and Fox News in January. Kiran Chetry left CNN in July.

CNN is expected to break up the mornings into two two-hour shows: 5-7amET and 7am-9amET, both produced from New York. O’Brien is expected to lead the 7am while Ashleigh Banfield, who anchored on MSNBC, CourtTV and most recently has been working for ABC News, is expected to co-anchor the 5am, likely alongside Zoraida Sambolin who, according to TimeOut Chicago is joining CNN from NBC station WMAQ.

The new shows are not expected to hit the airwaves until after the New Year. O’Brien is finishing up a new “Black in America” series for November and, as she told us last month, she plans to take a few weeks off after what’s been a busy 2011. Banfield’s contract with ABC runs through the end of the year.

TVNewser has learned the current iteration of CNN’s “American Morning” may be in its final months of production and will likely be replaced by two new shows, one airing from 5am-7amET and another from 7am-9amET.

We’re hearing Ashleigh Banfield, who has been working freelance for ABC News for nearly two years, may be tapped to anchor the earlier hours, while former “American Morning” co-anchor Soledad O’Brien, is being mentioned as anchor of the second two hours.

Banfield, the former MSNBC and Court TV anchor, is under contract to ABC News until the end of the year. O’Brien has been spending the last several years working on documentaries for the “In America” unit. No comment from CNN.

“American Morning,” which airs from 6-9amET, has had a rotating cast of temporary anchors since the departures of John Roberts late last year and Kiran Chetry in July.

“American Morning” — once a solid #2 behind “Fox & Friends” — has fallen behind in the ratings. In August, “American Morning” finished behind MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” for the fifth straight month, with the politics-heavy MSNBC show up +21% year-over-year.

As has happened in the past when shows are canceled, the staff of AM will have to re-apply for jobs after Executive Producers of the new shows are named.

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NBC's Kerry Sanders covers the Casey Anthony trial from Orlando.

Part 1 of 2: In the pre-dawn hours this week and last, hundreds of people have gotten in line at the Orange County Courthouse, hoping to get one of 50 front-row seats to the trial of Casey Anthony. Millions more at home have been glued to their TV sets watching gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial of a mother accused of killing her daughter, three years after the crime.

It’s the kind of court TV that hasn’t been seen since the days of, well, CourtTV.

“Short of O.J. Simpson, I have not come across a case with the level of mystery, intrigue and outrage that Ms. Anthony’s story offers,” says Ashleigh Banfield, a veteran of CourtTV and NBC News, who is covering the trial for ABC News.

NBC’s Miami-based correspondent Kerry Sanders has been covering this story since day one, reporting on Caylee Anthony‘s disappearance for the “Today” show from her bedroom in June 2008. “In 30-years, I’ve covered my share of trials from ‘the outlaws’ motor cycle gang, to political corruption, to pedophile murderers. This is by far the story with the most viewer attention ever,” Sanders tells TVNewser.

While gavel-to-gavel coverage has been a staple on TruTV’s “In Session” and on HLN, Orlando stations have also been carrying live trial coverage, pre-empting soap operas and talk shows.

Bob Jordan, news director of ABC affiliate WFTV, tells TVNewser more people watched the trial on his station as well as on Fox O&O WOFL and cable station CFN13 combined, than watched the Miami Heat – Dallas Mavericks NBA playoff game in prime time last night.

WFTV’s afternoon trial coverage is attracting more viewers than ABC’s soap operas and has “greatly exceeded” re-runs of “The Oprah Winfrey” show at 4pm, Jordan says.

And the interest goes beyond TV.

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