Substitutions in the middle of a game are pretty common in sports, but in cable news? Not so much.

And yet, this morning, MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” substituted Luke Russert for Chuck Todd right in the middle of the program. Todd threw to a commercial at 9:26, and when the show returned at 9:29, Russert was behind the desk:

“Welcome back to ‘The Daily Rundown,’ you are looking at the White House briefing room where President Obama is set to have a press conference at 10:15 AM,” Russert said. “So why is this Luke Russert talking to you? Well, Chuck Todd is on his way there.

“Traffic willing in this fair city, chuck Todd will be there in the first row,” Russert added.

At 10 AM, Chris Matthews took over anchoring duties. The presser is now slated for 10:30 AM.

Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC president Phil Griffin and the UAE’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba threw a 50th birthday bash for Joe Scarborough last night in Washington, DC.

According to Politico, Scarborough thought they were coming to D.C. for a speech, instead, on the rooftop of 101 Constitution Ave., Scarborough was treated to a “this is your life” with friends and family. “We have your life covered here completely, from Boston to Los Angeles to Florida to New York to Washington. Everybody is here,” said Brzezinski.

“You can sit back and relax and just hang with your family because, actually, we are going to talk tonight — and you’re not going to say a word.”

Among the guests: NBC/MSNBC’s Willie Geist, David Gregory, Luke Russert, Mike Barnicle, Andrea Mitchell, Kelly O’Donnell and Lawrence O’Donnell. “Morning Joe” EP Alex Korson and former EP Chris Licht and Licht’s boss’s boss at CBS, Jeff Fager. Also, Walter Isaacson, Dan Senor, Nicolle Wallace, Bob Woodward and more.

(h/t Playbook)

• “CBS This Morning” will broadcast live from Capitol Hill, inside the Ways and Means Committee hearing room tomorrow. The room will be the one where fiscal cliff legislation is born or dies. Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell will interview House minority leader Nancy Pelosi live.

• Katie Couric will reveal the biggest stories people shared on Facebook on her program tomorrow. She will also hosts guests to talk about the year that was, including NBC’s Luke Russert, CBS’ Mo Rocca and actress Ali Wentworth, whose husband is George Stephanopoulos.

• The New York Post‘s Claire Atkinson reports that among the changes CNN is considering to its lineup are shifting Piers Morgan from 9 PM to 10 PM “or even later.” Not surprisingly, it seems unlikely that CNN will continue to repeat “AC360,” at 10 PM, instead giving Anderson Cooper one slot or the other.

In advance of President Obama’s press conference this afternoon, Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders held their own pressers this morning. The Democrats talked about Nancy Pelosi staying on as House minority leader, while the Republicans talked about the Benghazi consulate attack. Both pressers had politicians ripping into the people that cover them.

NBC News correspondent Luke Russert asked Pelosi whether the Democratic House leadership was too old, and that the leaders were preventing younger members from taking on prominent roles. Russert was greeted by boos from Pelosi’s colleagues, as the minority leader ignored the question.

WATCH:

Later on, Senator John McCain was asked by a reporter whether intelligence that General Petraeus may have shared in email correspondence could be a greater threat to security than the attack on Benghazi. “That is one of the dumbest questions I have ever heard,” McCain replied.

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FNC’s Roger Ailes sits behind Pres. Obama, Gov. Romney and Cardinal Dolan at annual Al Smith dinner.

Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney set aside their political differences for a few minutes to poke fun at themselves, at each other, and at the media, at the annual Al Smith dinner last night in New York City. But the politicians weren’t the only ones to break bread with their rivals at the event, which this TVNewser attended: media executives and personalities from competing networks mingled over dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The candidates, who sat on either side of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the New York Catholic Archdiocese, were flanked on the dais by some of the television industry’s most famous faces. Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes sat among two people who have him to thank for their start in TV: on his left, Maria Bartiromo, who Ailes hired at CNBC in 1993, and on his right, one seat away, Chris Matthews, who Ailes hired in 1994 at the network that would become MSNBC. Katie Couric and Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. were also seated on the dais.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews chats with Roger Ailes.

Both candidates took aim at the media in their lighthearted speeches, which all three of the general cable networks broadcast live.

“I particularly want to apologize to Chris Matthews,” Pres. Obama said of his performance in the first Presidential debate. “Four years ago, I gave him a thrill up his leg. This time around, I gave him a stroke.”

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Maureen Orth, aka Luke Russert‘s mom, has written another juicy page-turner for “Vanity Fair” involving Tom Cruise, dating auditions and Scientology. On “Today” this morning Matt Lauer challenged Orth over some of the sourcing in the piece, including the story of one woman, actress Nazanin Boniadi, who dated Cruise for a few months in 2004 when she was still a member of the Church.

Lauer asked Orth if Boniadi was one of her sources. “If she is part of the article wouldn’t we want to know?” asked Lauer. “You might want to know but I’m not going to tell you my sources,” said Orth. The Church of Scientology has called the story “hogwash.”

WATCH:

Television personalities donned pink last night for the fourth annual Newsbabes Bash for Breast Cancer, a yearly event that raises awareness and funds for breast cancer causes hosted by a group of Washington, DC-based female journalists.

The group includes breast cancer survivor Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, Megan Hughes of Bloomberg TV and Brianna Keilar of CNN, as well as several local news personalities. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who had breast cancer last year, was honored at last night’s event, held at the Howard Theatre.

This year’s event also featured the “Newsmen in Pink”: Peter Alexander and Luke Russert of NBC, Peter Hamby and Don Lothian of CNN, and Jim Angle, Bret Baier, Ed Henry, Peter Doocy and Juan Williams of Fox News.

• Related, FishbowlDC: TV News Personalities: Prepare to be Pinked

Fundraising efforts this year went to George Washington University’s mammovan, a mobile unit that travels around Washington, DC to provide one-stop mammograms.

(Photo credit: WUSA)

Four days of Diamond Jubilee celebrations culminate this morning with a parade through London. CNN is the only U.S. network carrying the procession in its entirety, with Piers Morgan and Brooke Baldwin anchoring a special running until 11amET. ABC News will produce a special report around 10:25 when Queen Elizabeth is expected to appear at the Buckingham Palace balcony to wave to her subjects. Yesterday’s Jubilee concert broadcast live on the BBC peaked at 17 million viewers. The concert is being edited for an American broadcast airing ABC tonight in a special hosted by Katie Couric airing at 9ET/8CT.

As he has been this morning, multitasker Morgan Tweeted during the concert. One Tweet in particular drew the attention of proud Irish-American NBC’s Luke Russert:

WOW! Buckingham Palace ablaze with fireworks. Amazing. What a great night to be British. And what a terrible night to be a republican.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 4, 2012

Did @piersmorgan just take a shot at Sinn Fein while tweeting his excitement about the jubilee? — Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) June 4, 2012
 

Luke Russert hopes his first “Dateline” report, airing Sunday night on NBC, is the first of many.

The correspondent, who is usually running around Capitol Hill, was able to spend several months reporting the story of Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who is serving 25 years-to-life in Sing Sing prison the 1998 murder of a retired NYPD police officer — a murder he says he did not commit.

“Long form requires a completely different set of skills but it’s also rewarding,” Russert tells TVNewser. “So much of DC reporting is rushed. It’s impossible to escape that ‘breaking news’ graphic. With this story, I was able to do some real thorough research. Spend hours examining the case file.”

Russert interviews Velazquez, his mother, his former girlfriend, his attorneys and a witness who picked Velazquez out of a lineup, who now says, “I don’t know if I picked out the right person.” Dateline producer Dan Slepian has spent 10 years working on the story, which started when he got a letter from Velazquez. The inmate had heard about Slepian’s work on another case of wrongful conviction: the story of the Palladium murder, which helped set two men free.

“My goal is for people to pay attention to this case, put aside their judgments and opinions and just listen to the facts. To think if the guy on the other side of those bars was you or someone in your family,” says Slepian. “That’s what this story is about.”

Asked if he hopes Dateline will have him back, Russert says, “I certainly hope so.”

“It’s a luxury I don’t often have in DC reporting and one that I would certainly welcome again.”

Luke Russert, NBC’s congressional correspondent, has been moonlighting at NBC News recently. He’s reporting his first “Dateline NBC” story that will air as an hour-long investigation two weeks from tonight.

And while it’s Russert’s first “Dateline,” this is a story producers have been working on for a decade.

Ten years ago, Dateline producer Dan Slepian started getting letters from an inmate named Jon-Adrian Velazquez. Valazquez is serving 25 years to life in Sing Sing prison for killing a retired NYPD police officer — a murder he says he did not commit.

Russert interviews Velazquez, his mother, his former girlfriend, his attorneys — now two years on the case — and a witness who picked Velazquez out of a lineup. That man, August Brown tells Russert, “I don’t know if I picked out the right person.”

The “Dateline” investigation airs Sunday, Feb. 12 at 7pmET/6pmCT.