The time has come. The very first March Madness games are underway, and with them, comes the 2011 TVNewser bracket challenge.

Last year we had executive producers from across the TV news landscape make their picks, with “BBC World News America” EP Rome Hartman emerging victorious.

Hartman is back this year to defend his crown, but we opened the field up to all senior executives, executive producers and talent.

One thing we learned: “The Early Show” crew sticks together, and CNBCers love their college basketball.

Who are our players? Find out after the jump.

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One year after the earth shook under Haiti, TV news reporters and anchors, producers and photographers, looked at the devastation and the recovery with return trips, special reports, and interviews with celebrities making a difference.

• Fox News’ Bill Hemmer told Cincinnati Magazine that last year’s experience was like “traveling to the moon” because they “had to bring everything” with them to an island with “no electricity, in absolute desolation.” Fox News’ Steve Harrigan — who was there last year — went back to report on the tragedy.
• CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, Anderson Cooper and Gary Tuchman are reporting from Haiti this week. Cooper talked to actor/humanitarian Sean Penn about his work in Haiti. (Update: Cooper stayed in New York for breaking news in Tucson, Ariz.)
• MSNBC contributor and Senior Correspondent for TheGrio Jeff Johnson provided analysis from 30 Rock on his trip to Haiti last year.
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CBS ‘Early Show’ executive producer David Friedman celebrated his one-year anniversary on the program Monday with the new anchor team of Jeff Glor, Erica Hill, Chris Wragge and Marysol Castro. Not only has it been one year for Friedman, but he starts off year two with essentially a whole new show.

After the jump… cake.

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This morning marked the first official day on the job for the new “Early Show” anchor team of Erica Hill, Chris Wragge, Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro.

Hill opened the program by asking viewers to make a New Year’s resolution to watch the new “Early Show.”

Hill then kicked things off by talking to CBS News political analyst John Dickerson about the challenges facing the new Congress:

Later in the show, Castro showed video from her New Year’s Day participation in the Polar Bear Plunge at Coney Island:
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“The Early Show”‘s new team was interviewed on 620 “The Buzz with Mark and Mike” sports radio morning show in Raleigh, N.C. Thursday.

As the team was introduced to the hosts, Jeff Glor was particularly shocked to learn that one of the show’s co-hosts, Mike Maniscalco, is an old high school buddy from Tonawada, N.Y.

The two old pals told funny stories of yesteryear to Glor’s colleagues –  Chris Wragge, Erica Hill, Marysol Castro — and Maniscalco’s co-host Mark Thomas. 

The new team of “The Early Show” continues their road trip, selling themselves to CBS stations and viewers in markets where the show performs relatively well. On Sunday, Chris Wragge, Marysol Castro and Jeff Glor took in the shutout game between the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, and were hosted by Chargers owner, Alex Spanos. The three were also introduced on the field. Then it was off to dinner with reps from CBS affiliate KFMB before appearing on KFMB’s morning show Monday morning.

Monday afternoon, the team drove to LA for an appearance on “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Tuedsay morning, they went on the KCBS morning show. Then they flew to Houston, met with reps from CBS affiliate KHOU, and appeared on that station’s morning show today. For Wragge, it’s a return to Texas. “I told Erica, Jeff and Marysol that when we came to Houston, not only would they love KHOU, but Houston has some of the warmest people they would ever meet,” Wragge tells TVNewser. “I loved living here for four years and I loved coming back.”

The team is flying to Raleigh right now, for an appearance on WRAL tomorrow morning, before wrapping up the week in Tampa (actually St. Petersburg) where they’ll drop in on WTSP’s morning show on Friday.

The new “Early Show” team of Chris Wragge, Erica Hill, Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro made a group appearance on lasts night’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”

Much like he did during Katie Couric‘s interview on the show last week, Ferguson asked the kind of “out there” questions he is known for. Luckily, the team was game:

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CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves — sans wife Julie Chen who is fully ensconced in L.A. for her ensemble daytime show, “The Talk” — celebrated with his CBS minions, and the press who cover them, at CBS’ Black Rock headquarters last night.

CBS' annual airing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" drew 12.2 million viewers Nov. 30.

Several stars of CBS primetime shows were there, including Tom Selleck who stars in “Blue Bloods,” and Christine Baranski and Matt Czuchry of “The Good Wife.” And while Moonves can tout having the most-watched TV network, the stars of his struggling news division also worked the room — including the new front four of “The Early Show:” Erica Hill, Chris Wragge,  Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro. The team will be hitting the road next week, making stops at several CBS affiliates where the #3-in-the-ratings show performs relatively well. (Our sister blog TVSpy reports Wragge’s last day on WCBS is today.)

We talked with show EP David Friedman and CBS News & Sports President Sean McManus who both expressed their confidence in the team. “It’ll take some time,” said McManus, “but this is a good group. I’m excited.”

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President Barack Obama is set to hold a news conference at 2:20pmET to discuss the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts. Obama will speak shortly after Vice President Joe Biden proposes the tax cuts to Senate Democrats at a caucus meeting on Capitol Hill. And, sorry soaps fans, the broadcasters will be carrying the newser.

• ABC News’ Diane Sawyer will anchor the special report and will be joined by George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper at the White House.
• CBS News’ Jeff Glor will anchor with correspondent Bill Plante from the White House.
• NBC News’ Lester Holt will anchor coverage of the news conference with Chuck Todd at the White House.
• FOX has the option of taking the press conference. It’s up to the market whether to take it or not. Mike Emanuel will be the White House correspondent for FOX, and Jon Scott will be the anchor.

> Update: First question goes to Associated Press’ Ben Feller. Second question goes to the second row and Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman. The third question goes to NBC’s Chuck Todd. Then Scott Horsley of NPR asked the next question. Then Marc Ambinder of the National Journal and CBS News asked the next. The last question went to Jonathan Wesman of The Wall Street Journal.

See Obama on all of the networks after the jump…
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As we reported earlier, CBS News announced sweeping changes to its morning news program “The Early Show.” Anchors Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith, along with weather anchor Dave Price will all leave the program, with Chris Wragge, Erica Hill, Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro taking over January 3rd.

TVNewser spoke to “Early Show” executive producer David Friedman–now almost exactly a year into his current role– about the decision to relaunch the program with a new team.

TVNewser: Why did you decide to make the changes at The Early Show?

David Friedman: Well, I started here a year ago, and when I came in the goal was to continue to grow this show and be more and more competitive in the morning, I looked at every single aspect of the show, from content to bookings to staffing, talent, and my big priority was not to rush to do anything, but to soak it all in and make decisions that would take us to the next level.

This was a very long process to figure out what would do just that, and put a team in place that would make us even better than we already are and going forward. It wasn’t a rushed thing, we have been talking about different options and different teams for a quite a while, and we decided this was the way to go. I am sure it feels abrupt to everyone else, but we have put a lot of thought into it.

TVN: How did you decide on the anchor lineup that will be starting January 3^rd?

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