In his new role, Cliff will work with TheBlaze’s president and chief content officer, Joel Cheatwood, on new programming and business development. He was most recently a consultant for Wilkow, a recently launched show on TheBlaze hosted by conservative satellite radio personality Andrew Wilkow.

Before joining TheBlaze, Conway oversaw development of “The Joy Behar Show” and “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell” on HLN. He has also worked as an executive producer at CNN and as a producer at CNBC.

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With lead-in programs hosted by Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell, Bauder writes the show will air “to an audience that is nearly two-thirds women…

“It’s not like men are unwelcome, but when a rerun of Lou Dobbs‘ CNN show fell flat in Behar’s soon-to-be time slot, HLN yanked him this summer for Velez-Mitchell.”

Conway Cliff, the former EP of Velez-Mitchell’s program, is now overseeing Behar’s show. He says the predominance of female hosts is “sort of a happy coincidence…It happened organically.”

It’s all part of HLN’s overall programming evolution from a “wheel of half-hour newscasts”, as Bauder says, to its current hybrid of personality-driven shows followed by daytime headlines and evening opinion programs. “It was a big risk,” EVP of CNN Worldwide Ken Jautz tells Bauder. “It paid off, and it probably paid off better than I expected.”

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Behar will replace a “Lou Dobbs Tonight” re-air that has occupied the slot since Glenn Beck left the network for Fox News in October.

An official announcement is expected around 10:30 but insiders tell us “The Joy Behar Show” will be an opinion hour continuing the News & Views branding of HLN (formerly Headline News). Behar will now go head-to-head with opinion shows “Hannity” on Fox News and “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC and CNN’s longtime 9pm show, “Larry King Live.” Behar was often a substitute host for King who was informed of the decision and, we’re told, is delighted Behar is getting her own show.

Behar tells The Times’ Brian Stelter, “It’s not going to be dry, I hope, because I’m crazy.” And a “Nancy Grace” lead-in should help too. The show will be pre-taped in late afternoon as Behar will continue co-hosting ABC’s “The View.”

Conway Cliff will be the executive producer of the show which means there’s an opening for an EP of HLN’s 7pmET show “Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell.”

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The program to be called Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell premieres live tonight at 7pmET. Beck’s final Headline News show aired last night, hours after the announcement he was joining Fox News Channel.

Executive VP of CNN Worldwide Ken Jautz calls Velez Mitchell “a known and proven quantity to the Headline News audience.” Jautz tells TVNewser, “The fact that she’s Nancy’s [Grace] principal sub host will help us with improved audience flow between the shows. That’s been one of our weaknesses.”

Jautz met with the Beck staff today, all of whom will be kept on to produce the Velez Mitchell hour. Conway Cliff continues on as executive producer. Says Jautz, “the show will be similarly formatted to the Glenn Beck show which is a point-of-view discussion on topical events. It’s not our intention to be a crime show or solely political show but a topical event-driven show.”

Other changes are coming to Headline News prime time as well. CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight will re-air at 9pmET. “We emphasize that Lou’s show is news and opinion and we think he will do very, very well there,” Jautz says.

As for Beck’s sudden, but not-so-sudden departure…

continued…

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