CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosts a year end special with CNN’s foreign correspondents, including (l-r) Ben Wedeman, Arwa Damon and Nic Robertson

It’s a good thing today was a relatively quite international news day because most of CNN’s foreign correspondents were gathered in New York talking about about the incredible year that was. From the Arab Spring to the triple tragedy in Japan, reporters Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Arwa Damon, Hala Gorani, Matthew Chance, Sara Sidner, Kyung Lah and Ivan Watson crowded into Piers Morgan‘s studio at Time Warner Center where Anderson Cooper, who’s also reported from many of the world’s hotspots this year, lead the discussion.

CNN International EVP Tony Maddox tells TVNewser the get-together, which happens once every few years, “was the greatest gathering of foreign journalists on the planet.”

Before the taping we asked Robertson what is his most remarkable moment of this remarkable year. Robertson, who started as an engineer with CNN in 1990, says it was the uprising in Bahrain in February. “We were approaching Pearl Square and all hell was breaking loose.” Robertson used his iPhone to report live on CNN. Later, as he was rushed out of the area, he used the phone to record more video and his audio for a package that was edited in Atlanta. “That’s a far cry from 36 boxes of equipment we used to use,” added CNN EVP Ken Jautz

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TVNewser stopped by a book party for “How to Speak Money,” written by CNN anchors Ali Velshi and Christine Romans, last night.

Romans and Velshi were praised by CNN executive vice president Ken Jautz, who called the pair “the odd couple.”

“No names, but one of them is the kid who always has her homework done — her homework,” Jautz joked. “One of them, the dog always ate the homework. One of them gets a little nervous as the chapter deadline approaches, and one of them doesn’t have that problem because he’s not aware that it’s there.”

“Ali’s very into investing, I’m into budgeting,” Romans said. “Ali is a spender, and I am a saver. So the yin and the yang was there for us.”

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In the latest issue of Broadcasting & Cable, Andrea Morabito has a wide-ranging interview with CNN/U.S. executive VP Ken Jautz (subscription required).

The lineup changes Jautz has led come up a number of times, as do the recent comments made by Roger Ailes about Wolf Blitzer. The result sees Jautz arguing that CNN programs should have a point of view reflective of their anchors, but should also strive to be non-ideological:

Would you consider another political debate show in the future?

We do provide opinion from various sides of an issue. We’ve attempted to move away from the he-said-she-said, down the middle journalism and programming. We do in fact provide more analysis and more opinion and more debate within these various programs.

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The least of Soledad O’Brien‘s concerns as she returns to anchoring CNN mornings: that early alarm clock. “I already get up that early,” says O’Brien. “I have four kids. Four kids who all put themselves to bed, brush their teeth. I had my twins when I was doing ‘American Morning.’”

That was in 2004. And that’s not all that’s different this time around.

“Absolutely, positively everything is different,” says O’Brien, who will lead an ensemble of contributors for the second two hours (7-9amET) of CNN’s revamped four-hour morning show, debuting in January.

We talked with O’Brien this morning not long after CNN announced the changes.

TVNewser: You’ve been on the record saying you were fired from the morning show the first time around in 2007, what’s different this time?

O’Brien: Everything is different. The format is different. I think the landscape of mornings is different. I’ve spent the last five years doing something very different [reporting documentaries for CNN's In America series]. My style of interviewing is different. Absolutely, positively everything is different.

TVNewser: Ken Jautz has said he wants the morning block to “complement our direction in primetime.” What do you take that to mean?

O’Brien: Well, I think Ken Jautz wants this morning show to do well (laughter). We all do. We want to do a really strong, smart show that people are proud of. The kind of show that gets people to say: ’I can’t wait to watch it tomorrow.’

TVNewser: You’ve got strong competitors on Fox, MSNBC even HLN. How is your show going to be different from those?

O’Brien: I think that what we will do is cover a wide range of topics. Talk about stories that aren’t always covered on the news and dig down a little deeper. And bring on real people and contributors, who are involved in these stories. It’s what we’ve been doing with the documentaries … find a compelling story, tell that story and surround it with people who can add to it.

TVNewser: And who are you thinking for contributors?

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It’s been discussed for several weeks, and now CNN has made it official: Soledad O’Brien will return to anchoring two hours of CNN’s new revamped morning show, leading a team of contributors and guests from 7-9amET.  CNN EVP Ken Jautz promises the shows will “complement our direction in primetime.”

Ashleigh Banfield, the former MSNBC, CourtTV and ABC News correspondent and anchor will join CNN to co-anchor the 5-7amET hours alongside another new CNN hire, Zoraida Sambolin who leaves her morning show co-anchor gig at WMAQ (NBC) in Chicago.

Despite the weeks of speculation, insiders tell us O’Brien only sealed her new deal Tuesday. And just yesterday, Shannon High — recruited from NBC to be the EP of the four-hour morning block — signed her deal with CNN. The shows will launch in January.

Release after the jump…

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TVNewser stopped by a book party last night for CNN EVP Mark Whitaker, held at the Upper West Side apartment of HBO Video President Henry McGee and his wife, Celia. (HBO and CNN are both owned by Time Warner.) Whitaker’s family memoir, My Long Trip Home, will be released Tuesday.

In a room packed with colleagues and friends — people he called his “journalistic families” from stints at Newsweek, NBC and CNN — Whitaker (pictured here with his wife, Alexis Gelber) chronicled the experience of writing the memoir, which tells the story of his parents, an interracial couple who met in the 1950s.

“What really got me going and kept me going was not so much writing from memory, which I started to do at the beginning,” he said. “But when I realized that there were a lot of gaps in the story that needed to be filled, and I started to report. And it was really the reporting of the story that I became obsessed with.”

See who else was at the party after the jump.

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There’s a lot to the 4,900-word New York Magazine piece about CNN’s Piers Morgan. There’s the Rupert Murdoch anxiety dreams:

In one, he and Murdoch are walking along the beach in Miami and an enormous wave engulfs them. Just then, Morgan would wake up in a cold sweat.

The phone-hacking scandal:

“I’m not going to respond to every single, individual story. I published about 100,000 stories in eleven years. If anybody has any evidence of illegality, present it.”

And the feuds:

With reality TV co-star Omarosa (“a pathetically untalented grotesque waste of space”) and the ex-Mrs. Paul McCartney, Heather Mills (“an indescribably vile creature with no redeeming features whatsoever”)

And then there’s the story about how the British tabloid newspaper editor got the 9pm timeslot on CNN:

In early 2010, [Morgan's agent turned manager John] Ferriter started peppering CNN/U.S.’s then-president Jon Klein with links to interviews Morgan had done on ITV1… At the time, Klein was more urgently preoccupied with figuring out what to do with his 8 p.m. slot, where Campbell Brown’s show was dying, and only while on vacation a couple of months later, during a two-hour car ride from Palm Springs to L.A., did he get around to watching Morgan on his iPad… At 10 a.m. on April 23, Morgan and Ferriter met with Klein, then–HLN head Ken Jautz, and two other CNN executives in Klein’s office at the Time Warner Center. It was more of a meet-and-greet than an interview for a particular job. “Piers walked in and blew us through the back of my office,” Klein says. “He owned that room from the moment he walked in. It was the single best interview I’d ever had with any talent.”

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Erin Burnett flanked by her CNN bosses, EVP and managing editor Mark Whitaker, left, and EVP in charge of CNN Ken Jautz, right.

We’re thinking CNN’s Erin Burnett is eying a large Margarita when she gets of the air at 8pm tonight. Maybe during the show. Maybe right now.

Her premiere week — at least from where the critics stand — was not good. As for the ratings, more on that in a minute.

It was about :30 seconds, of a three minute story, in her (so far) four hours of programs on CNN. But if you printed out the criticism of Burnett’s coverage Monday from Occupy Wall Street, it could stretch from one end of Zuccotti Park to the other.

“Erin Burnett was way too dismissive and condescending of these protesters,” wrote Forbes’ Eric Jackson, who, 24 hours after posting his story, Tweeted that his take on Burnett was his 8th most popular story ever on Forbes.com.

The pile-on was swift.

• From the Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik: “Burnett’s problem runs much deeper from what I have seen — it runs straight through to the persona, if not the person herself.”

• Variety‘s Brian Lowery writes: “Burnett does appear to have been a terrible choice for her new role, on a program oddly titled ‘Erin Burnett OutFront.’ Out front of what, exactly?”

• Salon’s Glenn Greenwald called Burnett, a “spokesperson for Wall Street; it’s basically what her ‘journalistic’ career is.”

• Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins calls the coverage, “A Primer In Media Failure.”

After all the criticism Atlantic Wire‘s Adam Clarke Estes got this statement from CNN: “We support Erin and the OutFront team and we respect that there will be a range of opinions on any given story.”

Burnett and crew couldn’t even catch a break on the title of segment they like to call “Seriously!” Watch this NYMag.com clip for more on that. MediaMatters thinks Burnett should apologize.

Don’t count on it. We hear the plan is full-steam ahead; taking pride in what else happened during her debut week: interviews with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner; talking politics with GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and women’s health issues with model Christy Turlington.

As for those ratings…

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Mark Whitaker, Jim Walton, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, Piers Morgan and Ken Jautz

Last night CNN feted its newest anchor, Erin Burnett, at Robert restaurant at The Museum of Arts and Design in Columbus Circle, just a few hundred feet from CNN’s NYC headquarters. Overlooking Columbus Circle and the southwest corner of Central Park, guests watched the city fade into night, while clips of Burnett preparing for her show played on a loop on TV sets spread throughout the space.

Just after 7:30 PM, CNN/U.S. executive VP Ken Jautz and CNN managing editor Mark Whitaker made some brief remarks. Jautz commented that Burnett is extremely passionate about news, and that anyone expecting a curt reply when asking her what she is working on is in for a long conversation.

Burnett then addressed the crowd and thanked them for their support. Her manager John Ferriter was in attendance, as was her fiancee David Rubulotta. Jautz and Whitaker got shout-outs, as did CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton and CNN ad sales chief Greg D’alba, both of whom were working the room.

The party also drew a packed room of boldface names:

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CNN/U.S. executive VP Ken Jautz talks to Ad Week about the new lineup, which sees Anderson Cooper move to 8 PM–and featuring a replay of Cooper’s show at 10 PM. As we noted when the changes were announced, the mover will mean that CNN is the only of the three general news channels to have a replay on at 10 PM. Jautz vigorously defends the move, citing Cooper’s success in the period, and adds that it is not a placeholder decision. CNN intends to keep the new schedule intact.

But your primetime slate features re-airs very prominently [for example, under the new lineup, Anderson Cooper 360 airs at 8 and again at 10]. Do you have plans to change that? It seems like an unusual primetime lineup.

I’m going to dispute the premise on several different fronts, actually. But before I do that, let me say that it is a lineup that we look forward to building. We’ll build it and attract a greater and greater following. That’s one.

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