As TVNewser first heard back in April, CNBC has named Kelly Evans as a new co-anchor on “Squawk on the Street,” the business channel’s 9 AM-12 PM program. Evans will effectively be replacing Melissa Lee, who cut back her hours on the morning program last month. She will be joining the current “Squawk” team, which includes Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber and Simon Hobbs.

Evans is moving to CNBC’s headquarters in New Jersey from London, where she has been the co-host of ‘Worldwide Exchange,” which airs from 4-6 AM on the east coast. She joined CNBC in February, 2012 from the Wall Street Journal, adding co-anchor duties to “Worldwide Exchange” in May of that year.

CNBC senior VP Nik Deogun made the Evans announcement in a note to staff this morning. Read it below.
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First on TVNewser: Melissa Lee (left) is cutting back her anchoring duties at CNBC. Lee is moving off the 9amET show “Squawk on the Street” which he has co-anchored since Erin Burnett‘s departure almost two years ago.

“Melissa is an integral part of the network and wanted to focus on ‘Fast Money’ the 5PM show she has hosted since 2009 as well as work on other projects including her upcoming documentary on the industrial Internet,” a CNBC spokesperson tells TVNewser.

TVNewser hears Kelly Evans who joined CNBC from the Wall Street Journal last year and who currently anchors “Worldwide Exchange” from London, will be returning to CNBC HQ in the coming weeks and could land at “Squawk” alongside Carl Quintanilla, David Faber, Simon Hobbs and Jim Cramer. But no definitive plans are in place, insiders say.

• ABC News correspondent Reena Ninan and her husband, Kevin Peraino, are parents of a baby girl. Kate Ninan Peraino was born last weekend, weighing in at 6 lbs, 10 oz and joins older brother Jackson.

• Ratings are in for Monday’s premiere of “Good Afternoon America.” The ABC show drew 1.923M Total Viewers, improving upon the season-to-date average of “The Revolution” by +40%.

• Warren Buffett is co-hosting Bloomberg TV’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu” on Friday morning at 8amET. The show is live from Sun Valley for the Allen & Co. conference.

Gabe Sherman examines the evolution of the Bloomberg media empire in the latest issue of New York magazine. Tucked into the piece are a few  interesting details about the television operation:

Under CEO for multimedia Andrew Lack, Bloomberg Television has failed to eat into CNBC’s audience. Last year, talks to partner Bloomberg TV with ABC News broke down. Bloomberg has tried to attract stars, including offering CNBC’s David Faber a mid-six-figure deal. Bloomberg also went after the Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin. Neither could be swayed. Part of the problem is that [Bloomberg News editor in chief Matthew] Winkler remains resistant to adopting some of the entertainment values that could attract an audience.

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Throughout CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” this morning, Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber and Melissa Lee shared memories of Mark Haines, the longtime CNBC anchor, who died one year ago today.

“His picture is on a plaque here at the big board,” said Quintanilla. “He was always in your corner. The investor’s corner.”

“I miss him every day,” added Faber. “I think it’s a tribute to him a year after his death, that a day doesn’t pass that I don’t get a tweet or an e-mail saying either, ‘Mark would have loved that question’ or, ‘Mark would be proud.’ People have not forgotten him for a very good reason.”

Last night was night two of the “Jeopardy!” “Power Players” week, featuring TV news personalities and other prominent Washington DC types. The players were NBA legend and U.S. State Department cultural ambassador Kareem Abdul Jabar, former White House Press Secretary and current Fox News “The Five” co-host Dana Perino and CNBC anchor David Faber.

Faber owned this game, but both Perino and Abdul Jabar were strong players.

Categories in the first round played off of the three players’ careers, including “Lakers” (which was about lakes, not the NBA team that Abdul Jabar played for), “The Five” (about groups of five things, not the FNC show Perino co-hosts) and “Squawk on the Street” (which was naturally about birds, not the CNBC program).

There was no Chris Matthews level of wackiness, though Abdul Jabar got some laughs for asking, “What is X?” rather than the more family-friendly “What is G?” during a clue about movie ratings.

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Fox News Channel “The Five” co-host Dana Perino is prepping for her turn on Jeopardy! “Power Players” week by getting some help from “Red Eye’s” Bill Schulz. The former GW Bush administration Press Secretary has a tough act to follow: her Obama administration counterpart Robert Gibbs who eeked out a win last night. Watch Perino tonight take on CNBC’s David Faber and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Anchors, correspondents and contributors for TV news organizations make up most of the contestants for “Jeopardy!” “Power Players Week.” CNN, NBC News, Fox News and the BBC are all represented, with the contestants all playing for their favorite charities.

The players are:

From CNN: Anchor Anderson Cooper and correspondent Lizzie O’Leary.

From NBC News/MSNBC/CNBC: CNBC anchor David Faber, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, correspondent Kelly O’Donnell and anchor and correspondent Chuck Todd.

From Fox News: anchor Chris Wallace and contributor Dana Perino.

From the BBC: Katty Kay.

Other players are: Read more

People across the country today participated in “Spirit Day,” wearing purple as a sign of support for LGBT youth. The movement, started by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, counted several visible people as champions of the anti-bullying cause: morning anchors, evening anchors and cable anchors on several networks were color-coordinated today.

On the morning shows:

On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts participated, as did Ann Curry and Al Roker on NBC’s “Today.” All four co-hosts on “The View” — Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck — were decked out in purple as well.

After the jump, see who on the evening news and who on cable participated. Read more

Some changes are coming to CNBC’s business block starting next Monday.

CNBC’s 11am show “The Call” (formerly known as “Morning Call”) which has been anchored by Melissa Francis and Larry Kudlow will be replaced by an extra hour of “Squawk on the Street,” TVNewser has learned. The new hour will be anchored by Carl Quintanilla from the NYSE, accompanied by Simon Hobbs, Rick Santelli, Gary Kaminsky and others. Kaminsky, along with David Faber, had been been fronting the network’s NoonET half hour “Strategy Session” which has also been canceled.

“Fast Money Halftime Report”goes to an hour at NoonET and will continue to be anchored by Scott Wapner.

Kudlow continues to host is 7pmET show and Francis will now co-anchor “Power Lunch” with Tyler Mathisen and Sue Herrera at 1pmET. As we reported last week, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is moving off “Power Lunch” and has been named CNBC’s International Correspondent.

Internal memo from SVP and EIC Nik Deogun, after the jump…

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