• NBCUniveral’s “Women at NBCU” advisory board, which discusses issues surrounding women and marketing to women, has added 19 new women to its advisory board. Among the new board members: NBC Newsers Natalie Morales, Alex Wallace and Maria Shriver. The full list is here.

• Al Jazeera America has named Bob Wheelock senior executive producer. Wheelock joins AJAM from Al Jazeera English, where he was EP of newsgathering for the Americas.

• The CNN Airport Network, which provides content on TV screens at airports across the nation, is adding TBS’ “Conan” and HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” to its lineup. Conan O’Brien and CNN president Jeff Zucker have a long and illustrious history, as you may recall.

The debut of CNN’s “New Day” this morning can be summed up with my favorite Oscar Wilde quote: “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

As promised by senior executive producer Jim Murphy, the hyper-promoted 6-to-9amET broadcast – sorry, Soledad O’Brien — had tons o’ news and, at times, a “comfy and conversational tone,” but both were presented in wretched excess.

With gray-suited Chris Cuomo sandwiched between Christmas co-anchors Kate Bolduan (green dress) and Michaela Pereira (red dress), segments ran at a dizzying pace. That’s heavy voltage before breakfast.

Moreover, CNN dragged out practically its whole roster of correspondents for live talk backs. By my count, there were eight in the first eight packages alone. It was overkill, even for network boss Jeff Zucker.

The lead story was about a new CNN poll that showed Pres. Obama’s plummeting popularity. Cuomo chatted up John King. One story later, “New Day” went to that well again, this time with Dana Bash as Cuomo’s partner. Let’s hear it for moderation.

Lest we forget, HLN’s Nancy Grace popped up at about 8:20 to rant about two missing-child cases. She did not disappoint. In her usual high dudgeon, she acted like a “Saturday Night Live” parody of herself. I hope she never ups her meds.

As for the “comfy and conversational” aspect, that, too, was overdone. While Bolduan and Pereira gabbed like girlfriends around the glass table, the uber-intense Cuomo seemed uneasy and out of place. Face it, the guy can make a lost-kitten story sound like a mass murder.

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CNN’s new morning show “New Day” debuted this morning, and there were plenty of familiar faces (and voices).

Christiane Amanpour and John King filed reports, and Nancy Grace–who was for a long time a regular on ABC’s “Good Morning America–delivered some legal analysis. Actor James Earl Jones, who voices the “This is CNN” slogan, also welcomed viewers to the new program by saying “This is ‘New Day,’ with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.”

Insiders tell us they cannot remember King or Amanpour appearing on the CNN morning show in recent years, at least on any regular basis, but that the new mandate is that the day now starts at 6 AM at CNN, and you can expect to see the network’s biggest guns, including Fareed Zakaria, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper and Rachel Nichols all appearing regularly.

In other words, CNN is making sure all hands are on deck to make sure the show is a success. CNN president Jeff Zucker described what he was looking for in a morning show last month:

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An expansive profile in The Washington Post looks at CNN’s new morning show “New Day,” with a particular focus on its 29-year old co-host, Kate Bolduan.

The Post’s Paul Farhi notes the challenges that have faced CNN’s previous morning show efforts, and the changes coming this time around. At the top of that list is CNN president Jeff Zucker and “New Day” senior EP Jim Murphy, both morning show veterans.

“Our hope is that it will accomplish a couple of things,” says Murphy, surveying the new set. “We want to have more than the other guys. More stories, more live shots, a lot of coverage of the big stories of the day, without being tedious. . . . We won’t be ‘Fox and Friends’ or ‘Morning Joe.’ We’ll have some of the same conversations they have, but with our own take.” The tone, he says, will be “comfy and conversational.”

Then there is Bolduan. Farhi notes her quick ascent in the TV news world, but also that it wasn’t without its challenges.
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HLN anchor Robin Meade has a new album dropping this week, “Count On Me,” available at Target stores across the country.

To celebrate, CNN and HLN honchos hosted a party at The Cutting Room in New York City. Following a cocktail hour, Meade got up on stage and performed a set from her new album (see Meade sing here).

The room was packed, and TVNewser spotted “Today” anchor Matt Lauer, “CBS This Morning” anchor Gayle King, plenty of CNN talent, including Don Lemon and Kate Bolduan, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts and Richard Lui (both former HLNers) and actor Chris Noth, who is the co-owner of the venue.

Meade even got her friends in on her act, bringing CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker up on stage (see the photo above), as well as some of her colleagues. More photos below.
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Kelly Wallace is departing iVillage to re-join CNN — her third stint at the network. Wallace, who got her start as a producer at CNN in 1990 was a correspondent for the NBC News’ women’s issues site iVillage.com. Wallace will be a Digital Correspondent and Editor-at-Large for CNN Digital, focusing on family, career and life.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kelly back to CNN,” said CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker. “But this time she comes as a true multi-platform journalist, hired first and foremost to report for our strong digital assets. This move underscores our commitment to this space as clearly as ever.”

Wallace, a mother of two, is married to MSNBC executive producer Matt Saal. After her first run at CNN from 1990-1995, Wallace moved to on air reporting job at KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque followed by a 10-month stint at the State Department for Fox News in 1999 before returning to CNN as a White House correspondent. She left CNN for CBS News in 2007 and joined iVillage three years later.

Wallace begins next month at CNN.

Full release after the jump…

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CNN has won three awards over the past 24 hours. The network won two awards at the Radio/Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner last night and a Livingston Award for an online multimedia feature this afternoon.

CNN took home two of the four awards presented at RTCA event. Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash and senior producer Deirdre Walsh won the Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in congressional reporting and senior photojournalist Tony Umrani won the Jerry Thompson Award for excellence in photojournalism. The BBC and WTOP’s Dave McConnell were also honored with awards.

“Mauritania: Slavery’s Last Stronghold,” a multimedia feature by CNN Digital’s John Sutter and Edythe McNamee, was also announced as a Livingston Award winner this afternoon.

“There are a lot of ways we know our programming is making an impact. These types of awards are an important one,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker wrote to staffers in a memo this afternoon. “Congratulations to everyone involved, and thanks for your continued hard work.”

Read Zucker’s full memo after the jump. Read more

Former MSNBC and Current TV host Keith Olbermann is returning to air. Olbermann has been named as the studio host for Turner Sports’ coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs this Fall.

“It’s well known that Keith is a fan of the game and when you combine that with his studio experience, keen insight and passion for baseball and its history, he’ll add a new dimension to our MLB Postseason studio shows,” Turner Sports president David Levy said in a statement. “We’re excited to have him join Dennis [Eckersley] in studio, and look forward to Keith sharing his in-depth knowledge of the game, MLB teams and players with our viewers for three great weeks in October.”

Turner Sports says it has also signed analyst Ron Darling to a new, long-term deal, and that Cal Ripken Jr. will transition from the studio to the broadcast booth this postseason.

The news was first reported by the well-sourced James Andrew Miller on Twitter, with the equally well-sourced Marisa Guthrie adding the details in an item for The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal puts Olbermann in the same corporate family as Jeff Zucker, who ran NBC Universal when he became a star there. Zucker now runs CNN. As is par for the course in the TV world, Turner Sports talent routinely appear on CNN to promote big games. It is a guarantee that talent will be appearing on CNN to promote TBS’ MLB Playoff coverage. Whether that talent is Olbermann remains to be seen.

More from Guthrie:
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CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker sent an email to CNN staffers this afternoon, honoring the channel’s 33rd anniversary tomorrow, June 1.

In 1980, Ted Turner launched a revolutionary idea in news, and CNN was born. A lot has changed since then – from the way we gather the news to the countless ways our audience consumes it.

At the same time, a lot has not changed. We are still unequivocally dedicated to quality journalism and our storytelling abilities remain unparalleled around the globe.

Zucker also included a new promo video for CNN (watch it below), which he said “showcases some of who we are and what we do.” His full memo to staff is after the jump.

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CNN president Jeff Zucker appeared on a panel with IAC’s Barry Diller at the AllThingsD conference yesterday evening. While Diller’s broadcast network-challenging company Aereo dominated the conversation, Zucker still weighed in on his plans to expand CNN’s programming, the future of digital news and the channel’s coverage of the Carnival Triumph cruise ship story.

With regard to the cable news competition:

“While they are covering events in Washington from a political point of view, that leaves the news for us to cover,” Zucker said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t cover politics, but politics is just one part of the news. We are covering politics and much more, and I think that is the opening for us.”

He again noted that CNN wants to add programming that would typically be found on channels like Discovery, Nat Geo and A&E. He also praised “Parts Unknown” for epitomizing that ethos.

“Four and a half million new viewers who have not watched CNN have now watched CNN because they watched Anthony Bourdain’s show,” Zucker said. “In order to be successful going forward, we need to do that, we need to bring new viewers to CNN.”

Zucker said that he was “very pleased” where CNN was digitally, and noted that while TV is the most important platform now, it may not be in 10 or 20 years. Still, regardless of the platform, maintaining CNN’s brand is vital.

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