On Friday we noted that Fox News “Happening Now” anchors Jon Scott and Jenna Lee teased a “surprise” for Monday. It looks like our guess was spot-on, as they unveiled a new set this morning. The set is also being used by the new morning show “Fox News First,” which debuted today as well.

Unfortunately, that means “Happening Now” had to leave the newsroom studio. Scott spoke to staffers in the basement for their reaction to the departure:

At the end of “Happening Now” today, anchors Jon Scott and Jenna Lee teased something big.

Jon: You want to tell them.
Jenna: Me?
Jon: Yeah.
Jenna: I don’t want to tell them. you want to tell them?
Jon: Big surprise coming Monday.
Jenna: Big surprise coming Monday. You’re going to want to tune in for that. We are out of time now. We actually can’t tell you.
Jon: Thanks for joining us.
Jenna: We couldn’t even tell you if we wanted to…

So what could it be? A new show name? New set? Fox News wouldn’t tell us. But email us if you have info and leave guesses in the comments.

Whitney Houston‘s funeral is underway at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ.

CNN’s coverage began at 11amET with Soledad O’Brien, Piers Morgan and Don Lemon anchoring from Newark. Lemon described the scene outside the church, where the streets have been blocked off since last night, as filled with “hordes of media from all over the country, from Germany, from China, everywhere.”

On Fox News, Jon Scott said Houston’s “near-perfect voice brought tears and joy to people around the world.” Scott and Uma Pemmaraju anchored from New York, with Kelly Wright reporting from Newark.

MSNBC’s coverage, anchored by Alex Witt, began at 12pmET following this morning’s debut of “Melissa Harris-Perry.” Craig Melvin, reporting from Newark, did a live interview with Shaun Robinson, the “Access Hollywood” reporter who was the last person to interview Houston.

HLN’s coverage — anchored by Ryan Smith and Susan Hendricks, with Jane Velez-Mitchell and AJ Hammer in Newark — begun at 9amET and has featured a series of retrospectives on Houston’s life.

About 1500 people, including ABC’s Diane Sawyer, are attending the service.

The funeral for Whitney Houston will take place on Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, and while it is private, cable news is planning extensive coverage.

The funeral will be streamed online at the AP’s livestream page, so fans can bypass cable news if they so choose. In addition, users can expect to watch the AP stream on many news sites including FoxNews.com and CNN.com (even though CNN does not subscribe to AP content, the AP’s coverage is pool coverage, so CNN can use it). Those that do turn on their TV’s will have a number of options.

CNN seems to have the most comprehensive coverage lined up, with Piers Morgan, Don Lemon and Soledad O’Brien anchoring from 11:30 AM-2 PM. Saturday and Sunday evening Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Randi Kaye will host primetime specials looking at Houston’s life.

Fox News will be covering the funeral live from 11:30 AM-2PM, with Jon Scott and Uma Pemmaraju anchoring in New York. Kelly Wright will report from outside the church in Newark.

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On FNC’s “Happening Now” this afternoon Jon Scott — who also hosts the “FOX News Watch” media analysis show — moderated a debate on the fairness of the news coverage of the end of the Iraq war — which culminated early Sunday morning as the final MRAP vehicle crossed into Kuwait. Alan Colmes and Rich Lowry went head-to-head and it turned into a pretty typical left-right, blue-red debate (apologies for the Hoodie Footie commercial at the top).

Last night the Committee to Protect Journalists held its annual gala at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. The bulk of the event was to honor journalists who risked their lives to cover the news, and along the way a few well-known faces showed up. In addition to the international award recipients, Mansoor al-Jamri of Bahrain, Javier Valdez Cardenas of Mexico, Umar Cheema of Pakistan and Natalya Radina of Belarus, former “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather accepted a lifetime achievement award, while Comcast CEO Brian Roberts accepted his first public award since his cable company acquired NBCUniversal.

In his speech, Rather set his sights squarely on corporate media–of which Roberts is clearly a part– and sent a message to journalists to not forget their heritage. He was introduced by First Amendment lawyer James Goodale, who began by defending Rather’s report on former President George W. Bush‘s military service. “All the facts in that particular program were substantially correct,” Goodale said. “He was correct.”

Questions surrounding that report led to Rather’s departure from CBS News.

“As you know, we are living in an age when big money owns everything…including the news,” Rather said. “That cash bought a lot of silence for a long time. Enough time for unchecked power to get this country tangled into messes all around the world. We all know that money talks. But, so do the people…

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Early this morning, just before dawn at 5:57 AM, the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The landing was the final one for the Space Shuttle program, and with it, the American manned space program comes to a temporary end.

CNN and MSNBC carried it during their early-morning programs at that hour, whole “Fox & Friends” started an hour early to cover the event.

On the East Coast, many local affiliates carried the landing live during their morning shows. On the West Coast ABC, NBC and Fox ran special reports anchored by Josh Elliott, Natalie Morales and Jon Scott, respectively.

American astronauts will still travel to and from the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and there is a good chance that private spacecraft capable of carrying humans becomes viable in the next decade.

Watch the final landing, after the jump.

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Last week, “Fox News Watch” FNC’s media criticism show was criticized for not covering the hacking scandal involving its parent company, News Corp.

On this weekend’s edition, host Jon Scott led with the scandal, revealing the latest details — or almost latest, since the show was taped before Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton resigned late yesterday — and spending two segments of the half hour show on the growing scandal.

Cal Thomas, who last week said “I’m not touching it,” blamed News Corp.’s competitors for blowing up the story in order to end News Corp’s bid to take over BSkyB… which it did last week. “The left has been out to get News Corp. and especially Fox News Channel and the Murdoch family for years,” said Thomas.

Panelist and former Fox News host Alan Colmes, said don’t blame the left.

This knee jerk, ‘let’s blame the liberals, let’s blame the left. They’re out to get the News Corporation and out to get Mr. Murdoch.’ There has to be some personal responsibility and look, Mr. Murdoch seems to be taking that and put out an apology and visited the family of [Milly Dowler]. But there has to be personal responsibility and stop blaming the left and liberal media like it’s the liberals fault this happened.

The third segment of the show focused on the results of a Judicial Watch investigation into the White House shutting out Fox News Channel. And the final block dealt with the 10-year long Harry Potter series and the media’s coverage of it.

Video after the jump…

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President Obama turned up in the White House briefing room around 4:50pmET today to make remarks on efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction. All the cable news and business networks carried the remarks. Fox News Channel also offered a special report to affiliates which was anchored by Jon Scott.

HLN continued with its coverage of the Casey Anthony verdict with anchors Nancy Grace and Jane Velez Mitchell from Orlando.

(Image credit: Richard Drew/AP)

In addition to the cable news coverage, NBC, ABC, and FOX will offer special reports on Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s resignation news conference this afternoon at 2pmET.

ABC News coverage will be anchored by George Stephanopoulos in New York. He will be joined by Jon Karl in Washington and and “20/20″ anchor Chris Cuomo in New York.
Brian Williams will anchor a special for NBC which will also be streamed on msnbc.com. FNC’s Jon Scott will anchor for FOX affiliates. CBS will remain with regularly scheduled programming, but will make the press conference available to its affiliates via CBS Newspath.

Here’s a report from Fox Radio about the media trying to get into the building where the news conference will be held. (How cool is it that Fox RADIO is doing video reports and uploading to YouTube?)