With the Louisville Cardinals’ dramatic 82-76 win over the Michigan Wolverines, March Madness has come to an end. It also means that we need to declare a winner in the TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge.

Your 2013 TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge winner is…

CBS News VP of programming and “CBS This Morning” executive producer Chris Licht!

“This win takes a bit of the sting out of my beloved Orange going down to defeat,” Licht says. “That said, I didn’t pick them to win, so I guess everything worked out in the end.”

It was incredibly close this year, with CNN’s Tom Foreman only three points behind. his colleagues Janelle Rodriguez and Randi Kaye were also close. It was fitting that the winner represented CBS News this year, as the game was broadcast on The Eye network. Early numbers indicate huge ratings, up nearly +20% from 2012′s game. Licht also showed why he was boss by besting the anchors of his program, Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell.

As for your TVNewser editor’s experiment to let a computer pick the winners? It didn’t work out.

A big thank you to everyone who participated this year. The final standings are after the jump.
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This is it. Only two teams remain in the 2013 NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tourney, Louisville and Michigan. Amazingly, the TVNewser bracket challenge is too close to call.

“CBS This Morning” EP Chris Licht still has the lead, with 100 points. But CNN’s Tom Foreman is right behind him with 97 points. Fellow CNNers Janelle Rodriguez, Eric Sherling and Randi Kaye round out the top five.

FNC’s Anna Kooiman, CNN’s Lisa Sylvester and the computer-generated picks of TVNewser’s Alex Weprin are at the bottom of the pack.

We will know who the champ is after the big game tonight. The full standings are after the jump.
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Only four teams remain in the 2013 NCAA March Madness college basketball tourney, and things are getting tense in the TVNewser bracket challenge.

“CBS This Morning” EP Chris Licht has pulled away into a commanding (but not insurmountable) lead. CNN’s Janelle Rodriguez and MSNBC’s Bill Wolff are neck and neck at 2nd and 3rd while CNNers Eric Sherling and Randi Kaye are still within striking distance.

FNC’s Anna Kooiman and CNN’s Lisa Sylvester are at the bottom of the pack right now.

The full standings are after the jump.
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“First Thursday,” the big kick-off for March Madness, is over, and with it the 2013 TVNewser March Madness bracket challenge really gets started.

This early in the game everyone is really close, but a few people have separated themselves from the pack.

CNBC’s Brian Schactman leads the way, with his colleague Joe Kernen and CNN’s Brooke Baldwin right behind him. Right now Lisa Sylvester, Wolf Blitzer, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell are at the bottom of the pack, but there is plenty of time for a comeback.

Take a look at the full standings, after the jump.
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Spring is here (even though it may not feel like it where you are) and with it comes the sweet sound of sneakers on hardwood: the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament.

Every year we have some of the best and brightest from the world of TV news come together in one competition to see who is tops at picking winners and losers.

Ultimately there can be only one winner, and they get the chance to brag about their picking prowess for all to see. 2012′s winner was Fox Business Network stocks editor Liz MacDonald. Liz wont be participating this year, but 2011′s winner Dominic Chu is back to try and reclaim the title.

Here is your 2013 TVNewser March Madness lineup:

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With Kentucky’s 67-59 win over Kansas last night, March Madness has officially come to an end. That also means that it is time to declare a winner in TVNewser’s 2012 March Madness bracket challenge.

Your 2012 TVNewser bracket challenge winner is…

Fox Business Network stocks editor Liz MacDonald!

“It was great fun going up against really tough competition,” MacDonald says. “I am honored and thrilled to be this year’s champion.”

It was a close match this year, with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux and Kyra Phillips very close behind MacDonald in the standings. This is the second straight year that a competitor for one of the business news networks won. Last year’s winner was Bloomberg TV’s Dominic Chu. Chu also had a good showing this year, placing ninth.

In last place, tragically, was your humble TVNewser editor, who clearly needs to reevaluate his college basketball picking skills. My strategy of picking teams who had cool mascots (Blue Devils? Awesome!) may not have been the most sound.

A big “Thank You!” to all of this year’s participants.

The final standings are below.
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Spring is in the air, and that can only mean two things: March Madness and TVNewser’s 2012 bracket challenge.

Every March we have TV news talent, executives and producers fill out their brackets and make their picks, with the winner receiving the ultimate prize: bragging rights.

Last year’s champion–Bloomberg TV’s Dominic Chu–is back to defend his crown, but there is some steep competition from across the TV news spectrum.

Game on.

Here is your 2012 TVNewser March Madness lineup:

Team Bloomberg TV:

Returning champ: Dominic Chu, markets reporter, Bloomberg TV

Cory Johnson, editor-at-large, Bloomberg TV

Stephanie Ruhle, correspondent, Bloomberg TV

Team Fox News/Fox Business Network:

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• Ashleigh Banfield and Soledad O’Brien will be hosting their CNN morning shows from tornado-ravaged Harrisburg, IL this morning. CNN’s Don Lemon as well as four other correspondents and meteorologists are in the Southern Illinois town. Wednesday morning’s tornado was determined to be an EF-4 the second-most powerful on the scale.
• ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams is back co-hosting “Live with Kelly” today and tomorrow. Abrams filled in  a few weeks ago alongside Kelly Ripa. On a related note, in this week’s “So What Do You Do?” feature, “Loveline” host Mike Catherwood tells us how his turn in Regis’s chair was a career changer. “I signed with a big agency, I got Dancing with the Stars, and that’s when everything started snowballing.”
• Janelle Rodriguez, the newly-named VP of programming for CNN, is interviewed by the IWMF. Rodriguez talks about how her degree in rhetoric — yes, rhetoric — her master’s in Film, and the 2004 South Asian tsunami all put her on the path to CNN executive-ness.

Janelle Rodriguez has been promoted to vice president of programming for CNN, EVP Ken Jautz announced today.

Rodriguez has been CNN’s director of programming, overseeing the network’s Atlanta-based programs, since 2010. Prior to that, she served as a New York-based executive producer for the network.

“Her drive and passion for the news are  hallmarks of the best of CNN,” Jautz wrote in a memo to staffers announcing the promotion.

Read the full announcement after the jump.

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CNN weekend anchor T.J. Holmes is leaving the cable channel at the end of the year, TVNewser has confirmed. Richard Prince first reported the move in his daily media column.

Holmes began his career as a producer for KSNF in Joplin, Missouri, and would go on to work at local stations in Little Rock, Arkansas and San Jose, California before joining CNN in 2006.

Holmes’ destination is unclear, though one CNN staffer says he already has another gig lined up. In a memo to staffers this afternoon. CNN director of programming Janelle Rodriguez says Holmes is leaving “to pursue other opportunities.”

Rodriguez’s memo is after the jump.

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