Reporter Amanda Kost from Denver station KMGH Tweets this photo from outside the Aurora, CO theater

The tragic shooting in Colorado is forcing many TV news programs to throw out their plans for the day, what would likely have been a slow Summer Friday.

As we noted earlier “CBS This Morning” is going live into a third hour of programming, a first for the network morning show. CBS also says that Scott Pelley will anchor the ‘CBS Evening News” from Aurora, Colorado this evening.

> Update: Pelley will also anchor a special edition of “48 Hours” in primetime tonight at 8 PM. Jeff Glor is also going to Colorado. He’ll anchor a split edition of “CBS This Morning Saturday” and anchor “Evening News” Saturday and Sunday and stay for Monday’s “CBS This Morning.”

> More: On ABC, David Muir will report from Aurora for “ABC World News,” with Chris Cuomo anchoring a live “20/20″ from Colorado at 10 PM ET. Diane Sawyer–who was supposed to be off today–will come in and anchor “World News” from New York.

NBC’s Brian Williams will anchor from Aurora, and “Dateline” will have an hour on the shooting in primetime.

On cable news, Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” is forgoing what was supposed to be a taped special on the economy at 10pmET and will instead cover the shooting. Van Susteren will anchor from Colorado. Also, Fox News Channel’s Jon Scott–a Colorado native–is en route and will report from Aurora for “Fox Report.”

> More: NBC’s Chris Jansing was supposed to be traveling to London today for Olympics coverage. Instead she is heading to Colorado where she will anchor a 4pmET and 10pmET specials on MSNBC. Coincidentally, one of the athletes she profiled for the Summer games is from Aurora.

> More: CNN’s Anderson Cooper will be anchoring from Aurora, Colorado tonight as well.

On HLN this afternoon Kyra Phillips will make her debut on the network during “Evening Express” from 5-7 PM ET.

“Piers Morgan Tonight” EP Jonathan Wald says on Twitter that they will be covering the shooting:

You can bet we’ll be debating gun control live tonight. @piersmorganhas some very strong views.

— Jonathan Wald (@jonathanwald) July 20, 2012

We will update this story with more changes in coverage, as we get them.

Lewis Brown

In his interview with CNN Thursday promoting CainTV, former GOP candidate Herman Cain said that one of the stars of his new Internet TV network, a homeless man named Lou, had passed away. Specifically, Cain said that Lou “passed away suddenly last week,” after a producer went to see him to record more segments.

There is just one problem (as first noted by Mediaite’s Frances Martel): Lou died last September, and even received an obituary in the New York Times. Lou is Lewis Brown, a former basketball prodigy, who lived the later part of his life on the streets.

Friday, CNN set the record straight.

“Well, that’s not exactly right,” said anchor Kyra Phillips, after playing the clip of Cain talking about Brown’s death. Phillips said that a man whose father played with Brown reached out to CNN to set the record straight.

“Lewis’ life touched me very deeply, and I wanted you to hear about it in the proper light, Phillips said.

What followed was a full obituary on Brown’s life, much of it aggregated from the New York Times article. There was also a statement from Cain’s spokesperson, who said “in retrospect we regret that we did not keep in touch with Brown on a more regular basis.”

Some changes announced at CNN and HLN this morning.

First, Kyra Phillips, who has been an anchor with CNN since 1999, is leaving the network and moving a few floors away at CNN Center, to HLN where she will anchor a new daytime program launching later this summer.

Also, Ashleigh Banfield is moving off “Early Start” and will anchor her own hour later in the morning in Phillips’ previous CNN timeslot of 11amET. John Berman, who left ABC News for CNN, will now co-anchor “Early Start” with Zoraida Sambolin as well as contribute to other CNN programs and to CNN.com.

All the changes take effect in a few weeks.

Recently, Phillips had been anchoring daytime hours on HLN and Banfield has been anchoring daytime hours on CNN, so the moves are not unexpected.

HLN executive Scot Safon says, Phillips’ program “will highlight her strengths as a journalist as well as her insights and observations on the news and the people at the center of the stories.”

Memos from Safon and CNN EVP Ken Jautz, after the jump…

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For several days, several CNN correspondents and programs have been reporting on and discussing a portion of the 911 call made by George Zimmerman in the moments before he shot Trayvon Martin. They even brought in audio experts to try and get to the bottom of it.

At issue: what words Zimmerman used to describe Martin. Was it:

F*cking c*ons, as was first reported. Or was it:
F*cking cold, as as speculated next. Or was it:
F*cking punks, as Zimmerman’s lawyers claim.

This morning, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips played the clip five times on her show. (Although because the word “fucking” was used, CNN bleeped it, making it even harder to make out.) In the end, Phillips revealed, “several members of CNN’s editorial staff repeatedly reviewed the tape but could not make a consensus on whether he used a slur.”

(h/t Newsblues)

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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• Dr. Sanjay Gupta will begin recording daily features about medical issues through Cumulus Media Networks. Starting in May, Cumulus will offer four daily features exploring topics relating to health and wellness. Two features are designed for news/talk stations with two features geared to a younger audience on music and entertainment stations.

• Three of the four remaining GOP candidates will be on with Wolf Blitzer this afternoon on “The Situation Room.” Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich will appear for separate interviews. The candidates are campaigning ahead of the next three primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and DC next Tuesday.

• Kyra Phillips talked with producer/correspondent Lowell Bergman about his upcoming “Frontline” documentary on Rupert Murdoch and the phone hacking scandal. Bergman says he’s gotten no response from News Corp. “No one will talk — period. The only communication that we had was, off-the-record I thought, with Geraldo Rivera that he blogged about.”

And then there were four. Teams that is. The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament is nearing its conclusion, with only four teams left vying for the championship.

With the end in sight, it is a good time to check in our TVNewser Bracket Challenge. Joe Kernen has held on to the top spot, although the competition is fierce. Randi Kaye, Brooke Baldwin, Liz MacDonald and Kyra Phillips are all right behind him, with a number of others still within striking distance.

In last place at the moment, regrettably, is your TVNewser editor. This is what happens when you go to a Division III school.

Update: On “Squawk Box” this morning, Kernen noted that he was in first place in the TVNewser challenge, and took issue with me for not posting an update late last week.

WATCH (6:30 in):

The Final Four games will be played next weekend, with the championship set for April 2.

The full rankings, after the jump.

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The march to the Final Four continues, and with it the leaderboard atop our TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge continues to shift.

CNBC’s Joe Kernen has taken sole position of the lead, with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, FNC’s Harris Faulkner and CNN’s Kyra Phillips right on his tail.

There are still plenty of games left, and plenty of time for an upset. Stay tuned for updates, and check out the full leaderboard below.

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Have you been watching some of the first round games? Holy moly. Lehigh? Ohio? Norfolk State? Suffice it to say a lot of brackets are in trouble, and our TV news competition is no exception.

Right now NBC’s Rome Hartman (our 2010 champion) is tied for first with CNN’s Randi Kaye, with Kyra Phillips nipping at their heels. Most of the competitors are in the middle of the pack, with CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield and CNBC’s John Melloy at the bottom. Have no fear though, there is plenty of time to make up ground.

The full standings are after the jump.

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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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