While the U.S. networks have big plans for next Friday’s royal wedding (or hadn’t you heard), a mere 48 hours and 1,100 miles away in Vatican City another big event will unfold: the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Beatification is the first step to Sainthood.

• FNC will carry the Beatification Mass beginning at 4amET Sunday, May 1. Jamie Colby and Eric Shawn will anchor the Mass from New York while religion correspondent Lauren Green will report from Vatican City. Rome-based correspondent Greg Burke will report and FNC analyst Father Jonathan Morris makes a return to Rome to contribute.

• MSNBC’s Chris Jansing who will be covering the royal wedding, travels from London to Rome Saturday morning and will begin appearing on MSNBC Saturday. Jansing will anchor live coverage of the Beatification Mass beginning at 4amET. She’ll be joined NBC’s Vatican analyst and author George Weigel and Vatican Art Historian Liz Lev. Jansing covered the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI in 2005.

• CNN/U.S. and CNNI will broadcast the Mass Sunday with Jon Mann anchoring. Jim Bitterman will be the correspondent at the Vatican and author John Allen will provide analysis. CNN en Espanol will cover with Jose Levy.

• ABC’s David Wright is the correspondent for TV and other platforms. ABCNews.com will live stream the Mass with ABC News San Francisco-based producer Ariane Nalty reporting. (Interesting note: Nalty’s brother is Monsignor Christopher Nalty who worked at the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. Ariane’s father-in-law is Charles Zewe a former correspondent for CNN).

• NBC’s Anne Thompson and CBS’s Allen Pizzey will report for their networks.

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts flanked by Fox News anchors Kimberly Guilfoyle and Jamie Colby

TVNewser headed out last night to the annual NLGJA “Headlines & Headliners” fundraiser hosted by MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts. More than 400 attendees packed the Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams store in Soho for the event.

The primetime outing pulled in the morning show anchors including NBC’s Ann Curry, CBS’s Erica Hill and Marysol Castro, ABC’s Sam Champion and MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. We caught up with NBC’s Natalie Morales and Chris Wragge as they swapped stories about their early morning wake-up calls.

We chatted with ABC’s Andrea Canning, about getting the first of the Charlie Sheen interviews, and about her competitor and friend, NBC’s Jeff Rossen who got the second, and third and fourth. Canning told us even as the story has died down, she’s still getting press requests to talk about it.

FNC’s Jamie Colby, who anchors weekends for Fox, told us about her news-filled Saturdays of late — Libya last weekend, Japan the weekend before. “And the Gabrielle Giffords shooting happened on our watch.”

Curry shared with us her experience in Japan last week, which turned dangerous for those covering the story as the threat from the Fukushima nuclear plant grew. “I’ve taken our crews

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MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts will host the NLGJA’s 16th annual Headlines and Headliners event in New York tonight. What makes this interesting is that Roberts is the first openly gay TV journalist to host the event which benefits the organization for gay and lesbian journalists.

“I am honored to be this year’s host,” Roberts tells TVNewser. “It is going to be a great night. I really believe in NLGJA and its work and I’m proud to be involved.”

Roberts, who joined MSNBC fulltime late last year, was named anchor of the 11am hour last month.

NLGJA’s annual New York benefit gathers big name TV, radio, print and online journalists –tonight that includes FNC’s Jamie Colby, Rick Reichmuth, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Rick Folbaum; from CBS Erica Hill, Chris Wragge, Marysol Castro and Troy Roberts; from CNN and HLN, Don Lemon and Jane Velez-Mitchell; from ABC News Sam Champion, and JuJu Chang; and Roberts’ MSNBC/NBC colleagues Chris Jansing, Natalie Morales, Contessa Brewer and Carl Quintanilla.

In the past, the New York benefit has been hosted by ABC’s Diane Sawyer, NBC’s Meredith Vieira, and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien. Tickets are still available. Go here for more info.

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s 16th Annual New York Benefit: Headlines & Headliners will be hosted by MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, the association announced today.

Joining Roberts Jamie Colby (FNC), Ann Curry (NBC), Manuel Gallegus (CBS), Chris Jansing (MSNBC), Rick Folbaum (FNC), Natalie Morales (NBC), Erin Moriarty (CBS), Trish Regan (CNBC), and others.

Click here to purchase tickets for the March 24th event, which will take place Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams SoHo Store in New York City.

CNN and Fox News Channel are two of the principal sponsors this year.

Around 1:30pmET, the cable news channels began continuing coverage of a shooting spree at an event sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) outside a Safeway store in Tucson this morning. The shooting occurred around 11amMT (1pmET.) At 2:09pmET Fox News reported, sourcing  NPR, that Giffords has died. CNN and MSNBC would also report that Giffords had died, sourcing NPR. FNC’s Bret Baier, joining the coverage of Kelly Wright and Jamie Colby reports “multiple fatalities.”

Giffords, a moderate Blue Dog democrat who was just beginning her third term, was a guest on Fox News Channel just yesterday with Bill Hemmer. Hemmer joined FNC’s coverage around 2:10pm to talk about his interview. “She was proud of the fiscal discipline that she was bringing back to Congress and how important this was,” Hemmer said of Giffords who was proposing a congressional pay cut bill. Hemmer shared that during the commercial break he’d asked her about whether things in Washington were really going to change in the new Congress. Giffords told Hemmer that she was optimistic. “She was filled with vigor and enthusiasm,” he added.

The suspect is in custody. > New: Gunman identified as Jared Lee Loughner, who posted an eery video titled “My Final Thoughts.” We’ve included it after the jump. Also, his YouTube channel is written in the past tense: “My favorite interest was….” “I had favorite books…”

> Update: Fox News’ Peter Doocy reports that in addition to Giffords, four others have died, including a child.

> Update: On CNN, Sylvia Lee, a friend of Giffords talked about how there had been threats against Giffords’ office and that of Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).

> More: On MSNBC, Rep. Kent Franks (R-AZ): “I am mortified beyond words. Gabrielle Giffords and I are on different ends of the political spectrum, but there has never been one unkind or cross communication between us.”

> More: Pima County, AZ Sheriff Clarence Dupnick talking with MSNBC’s Alex Witt: “I think it’s time that we as a country take look at what kind of hatred we inflame with all the crap that goes on … I think it’s time that this country take a look at … the inflammatory crap that comes out out of some of the radio and TV.”

> Update: By 2:30pmET CNN, MSNBC and FNC had reported, through various sources, that Giffords had died. But those reports would soon be corrected. Around 2:50pmET Bret Baier explained the conflicting reports of Giffords’ death and her condition being critical:

We had three sources, one very reputable source on Capitol Hill, one federal official, law enforcement official on the ground in Arizona, and one federal law enforcement official in D.C monitoring the situation. Three different sources tell us that the Congresswoman had been killed in this shooting. Now, it appears according to her office and the hospital, that she is in surgery, and that the hospital has told the AP and Reuters that she is still in surgery and in critical condition.

> More: Shepard Smith took over anchoring on FNC at 3pmET.

CBS’s Russ Mitchell anchored special reports at 2pmET and again at 2:30pm. ABC’s David Muir anchored specials at 1:37pm and 2:37pm. MSNBC’s Alex Witt interrupted her own coverage on the cable network to anchor an NBC network special at 2:25pmET.

> Condition Update, 4pmET: Doctors are “very optimistic” about Giffords’ recovery. She was shot one time, “in the head, through-and-through.” The bullet, “went through her brain,” said a spokesperson in a news conference carried on the newschannels.

> Update: Fox News, MSNBC programming changes after the jump…

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Just before NoonET, the cable networks began reporting the news that Pres. Obama had landed in Kabul, Afghanistan for a brief, but previously unannounced trip. Fox News anchor Jamie Colby reported the news at 11:51am, as did NBC White House correspondent Mike Viqueira on MSNBC. CNN’s Candy Crowley, who was part of the “Sound of Sunday” segment at the end of “Reliable Sources” reported the news at 11:53amET. ABC News produced a special report 12:03pmET anchored by Bianna Golodryga.

Press Secy. Robert Gibbs Tweeted the news at 11:51:

The President just landed in Afghanistan to see out troops and meet with President Karzai and his Cabinet

The Today show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford hosted the 15th Annual NLGJA Headlines & Headliners benefit last night in New York City.

The event brings out the biggest names in TV news from across the networks. Before breaking into song, Gifford told the crowd of gay journalists, “This whole don’t ask don’t tell thing. I mean if you guys want to serve in the millinery, that’s fine with me. Go, sew, sew, make your hats. That’s fine. I’m all for it.” (Video after the jump)

We chatted with the Fox Newsies, Jamie Colby, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Megyn Kelly. Kelly whipped out her iPhone to show us a picture of baby Edward who turned six months old yesterday.

NBC’s Weekend Today co-anchors Jenna Wolfe and Amy Robach were there. Robach — a newlywed — introduced her husband, the actor Andrew Shue to the crowd.

We chatted up CNN’s State Department correspondent Jill Dougherty and features reporter Jeanne Moos.

CBS News correspondent Manuel Gallegus — normally reporting from Los Angeles is calling New York home these days. A crowd gathered around HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell who told us a gentlemen she’d just met may show up as a guest on “Issues” in the coming days.

New mom CNBC’s Trish Regan, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer and CBS’s Erin Moriarity were also in attendance.

Fox News Channel anchors Kimberly Guilfoyle, Jamie Colby, and Megyn Kelly at last night’s NLGJA benefit.

More pictures, and Hoda and Kathie Lee video, after the jump…

(Photos: Darren Gantt)

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The Today show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford will host the 15th Annual NLGJA Headlines & Headliners benefit this Thursday night in New York.

Some of the other TV types in attendance: From Fox News Jamie Colby, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Megyn Kelly, Geraldo Rivera and Kelly Wright; from NBC News, Natalie Morales, Amy Robach, and Jenna Wolfe; from CBS, Manuel Gallegus and Erin Moriarty; from HLN, Jane Velez-Mitchell; Jeanne Moos from CNN and from CNBC, Carl Quintanilla and Trish Regan.

Click here for more information and to attend…

The usually quiet holiday season was interrupted this year by breaking news of the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest flight 253.

As we noted, Ali Velshi anchored near wall-to-wall coverage on CNN, while Jamie Colby was in for Fox News and MSNBC’s Christina Brown provided brief updates during documentary programming.

CNN devoted almost the entirety of its primetime to the story, and it attracted the viewers. From 8-11pmET, CNN averaged 1.16 million total viewers (318k in the A25-54 demo), just enough to top Fox News, which averaged 1.10 million viewers (301k demo). MSNBC averaged a far fewer 337k total viewers (148k demo).

The AP’s David Bauder writes about the criticism MSNBC is now facing for its lack of comprehensive coverage of the incident:

Competitors CNN and Fox News Channel gave much more extensive attention to the story on Christmas night as MSNBC stuck with taped programs on a murder mystery and environmental issues, along with an “undercover” report on the teenage sex trade.

Bauder also writes, “For its part, MSNBC has noted that its long-form taped programming have been successful in the ratings during weekends.”

On Saturday, Fox News and CNN continued major coverage of the story in primetime. Greta Van Susteren cut her vacation short to anchor a special two-hour “On the Record” Saturday evening, which returned FNC to the top of the total viewer ratings with 841,000 watching during primetime. CNN’s primetime, which featured re-airs of the network’s exclusive with Jasper Schuringa, averaged 692,000.

In the demo, however, MSNBC’s documentary programming drew more A25-54 viewers (266k) than both those networks.

• Friday and Saturday scoreboards.

CNN and Fox News are continuing with live coverage of an attempted terror attack on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam as it was about to land in Detroit. Here’s the AP brief on the story:

As this is Christmas, the cable news networks were all in taped programming when the news first broke. CNN’s T.J. Holmes reported the story at 2:19pmET when the initial incident was attributed to a passenger setting off firecrackers. FNC reported the details at 2:22pm and MSNBC reported the news at 3:31pm in a scheduled news update during documentary programming. As the details continued to come in, and the White House declared it an attempted act of terrorism, FNC and CNN increased their live coverage with Jamie Colby anchoring on Fox News and Ali Velshi anchoring for CNN. MSNBC continues to air updates on the half hour during documentaries anchored by Christina Brown.

White House correspondents Ed Henry for CNN and Steve Centanni for Fox News reported from Hawaii where the president was first made aware of the incident around 9am Hawaii time.

• Related – Mediaite: Fox & CNN Covering Flt. 253 Terror Scare – MSNBC Stays With Doc