President Obama is scheduled to comment on the disaster in Oklahoma at 10 AM and it is likely that all of the broadcast networks will break into regular programming to cover it.  ”CBS This Morning” went into the 9 AM hour to cover the fallout. We hear that “CTM” will stay live until 12 PM on the east coast covering the damage, and 10 AM pacific.

Update: “Our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today,” Obama said. “Oklahoma needs to get everything that it needs right away.”

“If there is hope to hold onto, not just in Oklahoma but around the country, it is the knowledge that the good people there in Oklahoma are more prepared than most, and what they can be certain about is that Americans around the country will be right there with them,” he added.

Meanwhile, the news channels are sending their A-teams to Oklahoma to cover the fallout from the tornado.

As we noted yesterday, NBC has Brian Williams,  Lester Holt, Ann Curry, Harry Smith, Kate Snow, Anne Thompson and Dr. Nancy Snyderman in Oklahoma, as well as the Weather Channel team of Jim Cantore, Mike Bettes, and Mike Seidel.

ABC News has Sam Champion, Ginger Zee, David Muir and Alex Perez in Oklahoma. Byron Pitts, Mike Boettcher, and Cecilia Vega are also either in Moore or en route.

CBS has Norah O’Donnell anchoring from Moore, and Anna Werner on the ground, and Scott Pelley will anchor the “CBS Evening News” there this evening.
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Pope Francis marked the start of his papacy with an inaugural mass at the Vatican this morning. The cable and broadcast networks that had special reports anchored coverage of the event, which began around 4:30amET, from New York.

CNN covered the mass during an expanded version of “Early Start,” with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin anchoring beginning at 3:30amET. Fox News’ special report, anchored by Shepard Smith, began at 4:20amET. Chris Jansing anchored on MSNBC beginning at 4:30amET.

On the broadcast networks, ABC’s Terry Moran anchored beginning at 3:51amET. Cecilia Vega and Ron Claiborne reported from Vatican City. On NBC, Savannah Guthrie anchored beginning at 4:31amET, with Keir Simmons in Vatican City. CBS News did not air a special report, but correspondent Vinita Nair did live shots from St. Peter’s Square for the network’s affiliates during the inaugural mass. CBS also streamed the ceremony live on its website.

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ABC’s Diane Sawyer will broadcast “World News” from the Vatican beginning this evening. Sawyer is joined in Rome by Terry Moran, Josh Elliott, David Wright, Cokie Roberts, Rob Claiborne and Cecilia Vega. The network plans to broadcast special reports for the cardinals’ twice-daily votes.

CBS’ Scott Pelley will also be live from Vatican City starting today. Norah O’Donnell and Charlie Rose will host “CBS This Morning” live from Vatican City, with CBS News correspondents Allen Pizzey and Mark Phillips contributing to coverage.

Chris Jansing and Lester Holt will lead coverage for NBC News and MSNBC from Rome.  Anne Thompson, Keir Simmons, Claudio Lavangna and George Weigel will also contribute to NBC-MSNBC coverage. Both networks will provide special reports for the cardinals votes. Jansing and Holt also led coverage of the last papal conclave in 2005, which Jansing talks about in a lengthy Q&A with Inside Cable News.

On Fox News, Shepard Smith will anchor from Rome. He will be joined by correspondents Amy Kellogg and Lauren Green to cover the conclave. Bryan Llenas will be reporting for Fox News Latino.

Chris Cuomo and Anderson Cooper will lead CNN’s coverage from Rome. Ben Wedeman, Miguel Marquez, Dan Rivers and Becky Anderson will report, along with CNN en Español’s Adriana Hauser and Jose Levy. CNN Vatican analyst John Allen will also contribute to coverage.

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About midway through the 4pmET hour, all three cable news networks pivoted to Los Angeles, where murder suspect Christopher Dorner engaged in a gunfight with police.

During “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Fox News had Trace Gallagher reporting on the phone from Los Angeles. Gallagher is currently anchoring from FNC’s L.A. bureau, preempting “The Five.”

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Chris Cuomo are anchoring CNN’s coverage, with reporters Casey Wian and Chris Welch. CNN is using aerial footage from its affiliates on a delay.

Chris Matthews is anchoring for MSNBC, with John Yang contributing from Los Angeles.

ABC News and NBC News also aired special reports around 5pmET. Bill Weir anchored on ABC, with Pierre Thomas and Cecilia Vega contributing; Brian Williams anchored on NBC, with Yang contributing from LA.

On the local front, Carter Evans, the husband of former Fox News Channel reporter Courtney Friel, was covering the shootout for KCBS in Los Angeles. TVSpy has the video.

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Univision’s Mexican-born anchor Jorge Ramos told ABC News the three most important issues for voters have been: “Violence, violence, and violence.”

That violence came a little too close for comfort for an ABC News cameramen who was robbed at gun point. Last night at the end of her report on “World News,” correspondent Cecilia Vega said, “that fear you heard of is everywhere. Even our cameraman was robbed at gun point on the night that we arrived. He is fine, thankfully, but it shows just how dangerous life here can be here and how much things need to change.”

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ABC’s special “20/20″ anchored by Barbara Walters and all about the ups and downs of being a lottery winner, scored the best demo numbers for the show in more than two years.

“20/20″ was also the night’s #1 show in the A18-49 and A25-54 demos. The show, complete with a count-down clock to the live 11pmET Mega Millions drawing, including reports from Dan Harris, Jay Schadler, John Berman, Nick Watt and Cecilia Vega.

While “20/20″ scored with younger viewers it came in second to CBS’s “Blue Bloods” in Total Viewers: 10.6 million vs. 6.9 million for “20/20.” However ABC did beat its newsmagazine competition “Dateline NBC” by more than 2.3 million viewers.

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Considering the rate gas prices are going up, we suppose this was bound to happen. On “World News with Diane Sawyer” tonight the lead was the rise in gas prices which, at one Los Angeles station happened during correspondent Cecilia Vega‘s liveshot. As Vega introduced her story, the price of regular unleaded at the station behind her was $4.99 — but when the story concluded nearly two minutes later the price jumped 10 cents to $5.09 a gallon. “It is almost too unbelievable to believe,” said Vega to Sawyer.

And before you think Vega or her producers had somehow timed the hike for the liveshot, a “World News” insider tells us the only conversation anyone from Vega’s team had with the station clerk was to ask for permission to park on the property. And since it was 3:30pm in LA when the liveshot occurred, the gas station attendant wouldn’t have been watching “World News.”

Video after the jump…

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KGO San Francisco reporter Cecilia Vega will be joining the mothership at ABC News.  Vega will become a correspondent for all of ABC News’ platforms and programs, and will be based out of Los Angeles. ABC News president Ben Sherwood announced the move in an email to staff Monday afternoon. Sherwood’s memo is after the jump.

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