As Lance Armstrong comes clean to Oprah Winfrey about his days of doping, it is something of a bittersweet moment for ABC News correspondent Neal Karlinsky. Karlinsky has been following the Armstrong story longer than just about any other journalist in TV news, beginning in 2010 with an interview with Armstrong’s former teammate Floyd Landis.

There is also personal element to it.

“I used to race competitively, I feel very passionately about the sport of cycling, I just love it,” Karlinsky tells TVNewser. “There was never any intersection between this — lets face it, obscure sport in the United States — and my career as a journalist. I never expected that intersection to be the one story that is pulling the sport down.”

Since the Landis interview, Karlinsky has been on the Armstrong beat for ABC, and along the way has spoken to dozens of sources close to Armstrong and his teammates. He says that he was not surprised the U.S. Anti Doping agency took action against the cyclist, but rather that it took so long.

“This story — in talking to sources on background since 2010 — has felt like it might explode with a huge development at any moment almost the entire time,” he said.

Karlinsky says that Armstrong genuinely wants to be able to compete competitively again, and that is one of the driving forces behind his decision to come clean.

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• Nowadays Neil Cavuto is successful anchor on Fox news and Fox Business Network, but did you know his first job was as a fish fryer at an Arthur Treacher’s fast food joint? It’s true, and he relates the story to the Danbury News-Times.

• Speaking of Fox Business, correspondent Charlie Gasparino talks to the Bronx Times about growing up–sort of–in the Bronx.

• Oprah Winfrey appeared on “CBS This Morning” to promote her interview with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong Winfrey said that the interview was so good, it will be split over two nights. Watch her appearance after the jump.

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As disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong prepares to sit down with Oprah Winfrey tonight (the interview will air on OWN Thursday), the chairman of CBS News says that the network regrets that Armstrong didn’t sit with them instead.

“We wanted the Lance Armstrong interview badly. He chose to go with Oprah,” said Jeff Fager, who is also the executive producer of the iconic newsmagazine. Fager was speaking on a panel about “60 Minutes Sports” at the Television Critics Association Winter press tour in Pasadena.

Admittedly, CBS and Armstrong do not have the friendliest history. In 2011 Armstrong demanded an apology from the network for airing a story that suggested he was a cheat, which it now seems clear he was. Fager responded to the lawsuit by asserting that the reporting by “60 Minutes” was thorough and accurate.

“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Gayle King, who happens to be Oprah’s best friend, said this morning that the talk-show host has been “pulling all-nighters” in advance of the interview.

“And what I know about this story is that it all came together within the last week,” King said. “And Oprah spent this past week pulling what you did in college, all-nighters getting ready. So whatever Lance has to say, she is certainly prepared.”

• Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong will break his silence, giving Oprah Winfrey the first interview since he was banned from the sport for doping. The interview will air on OWN next Thursday at 9 PM.

• The New York Post‘s Linda Stasi reports on an all-staff meeting at Current TV. Al Gore didn;t show up, and staffers weren’t happy. “He’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar!”

• The creator of MSNBC’s new doc series “Chained To My Ex,” Matt Ritter, speaks to the NY Observer. The series follows couples that are co-habitating, even after their messy divorces.

“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Gayle King made a guest appearance as herself on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock” last night. Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey) was honored as one of the “80 under 80″ by a New York women’s media organization. King was also an attendee, and had some sage advice for Lemon about the machinations of “best friends.”

WATCH:

As it happens, the moment may have been based on a real-life event. In 2010, both Fey and King were presented with “Matrix Awards,” by the organization New York Women in Communications. King’s best friend, Oprah Winfrey, helped honor her.

The Hollywood Reporter is out with its annual Women in Entertainment Power 100. For the third straight year, Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television, tops the list.

Sweeney says her proudest moment this year was ABC’s Day of Giving across all the network and syndicated programming. The network raised $19 million for the Red Cross for victims of Hurricane Sandy. “She has a unique combination of professionalism and warmth,” Katie Couric — who also makes the list this year — says of Sweeney.

NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, OWN CEO Oprah Winfrey and PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger also made the list.

Other fun facts from the THR list: Tina Fey gets starstruck by local New York City anchors and Couric’s ringtone is “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” by LMFAO. “It’s a joke,” the “Katie” host says.

David Letterman invited Oprah Winfrey to his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana Monday. The candid conversation, part of a series Letterman puts on, lasted an hour and 40 minutes — 45 minutes longer than scheduled.

After her Letterman sitdown, Winfrey talked with CBS’s Jeff Glor, for an interview that aired on “CBS This Morning:” “It felt like Dave was giving me therapy,” says Winfrey. “I am sitting on stage in a real conversation with Dave Letterman about things that I haven’t thought about for years,” she tells Glor.

Also reflective this morning, “CBS This Morning” hosts Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell. “This has been a great broadcast,” said Rose at the end of the show. “Think of the people that have been on. Warren Buffett, R.A. Dickey was here. Oprah Winfrey. What a great job to have.” O’Donnell responded: “It is. And you know what, Charlie? It’s the best job I have ever had. I do mean that. And a lot of it has to do with you and Gayle. Not [show EP] Chris Licht, though,” O’Donnell chuckled.

Glor’s story, after the jump…

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Forbes‘ Jeff Bercovici interviews ABC News president Ben Sherwood. “Good Morning America” was a significant part of the conversation, and Bercovici pressed Sherwood on whether “GMA’s ratings wins were coming at the expense of hard news, citing the recent guest-hosting appearance of Ann Romney, and Sarah Palin on competitor “Today.”

[Long pause] I think that “Good Morning America,” every morning, comes right out of the box at 7 a.m. with an incredibly aggressive mix of everything people need to stat their day. You’ve got George Stephanopoulos explaining the political world, you’ve got Sam Champion chasing the biggest weather around the country, you’ve got Josh Elliot telling folks what the big news around the world is, you’ve got Lara Spencer with all the entertainment and lifestyle information, and you’ve got Robin, who is the heart and soul of our program, who is on medical leave right now.

Once in a while…we book all kinds of guests on the program. Typically they’re newsmakers and they’re there to add some life to the program. I think the audience gets it. I think the audience understands what they’re there for. While Robin’s away healing from her bone marrow transplant, we’ve got an entire range of people coming in who want to be there for her, want to support her and want to show some solidarity for what she’s going through. Whether that’s Oprah Winfrey, or Sofia Vergara, Ann Romney — I think the audience understands what that’s about.

Ebony magazine has revealed its Power 100 list of the most influential African Americans. On the list, Pres. Barack and Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Bishop T.D. Jakes. On the media side, ABC’s Robin Roberts is on the list. And while it’s made up of 99 individuals or couples, a book and a movie, one entire entity — MSNBC — is on the list. MSNBC counts Rev. Al Sharpton, Tamron Hall, Melissa Harris-Perry and Toure as regular hosts and in the just completed October ratings report, MSNBC marked its 33rd straight month as the the #1 cable channel among African American viewers (Mon-Sun, primetime).

Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly gives an enthusiastic two thumbs up for “Lincoln,” the new Steven Spielberg film which documents the final few months of the Civil War as Abraham Lincoln tries to get the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery through the House of Representatives.

TVNewser attended the screening and a Q&A with Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays Lincoln, and screenwriter Tony Kushner moderated by TIME’s Rick Stengel. Stengel called first on O’Reilly who asked Day-Lewis how long it took to prepare for the role. “It took a year,” Day-Lewis says. “It seemed preposterous at first … growing up in Southeast London” to play the 16th president of the United States.

O’Reilly then gave his seal of approval: “You know you’re going to win Best Picture.” Then, to Day-Lewis, “and you’re going to win Best Actor.” And to Spielberg: “And you’re going to win Best Director and [Tommy Lee] Jones is going to win Best Supporting Actor.” Jones plays “Radical Republican” Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.

Before the screening we had a chance to talk with O’Reilly, author of “Killing Lincoln” on its 55th week on the New York Times Best-Sellers list, this week at No. 5. His “Killing Kennedy” is No. 1 on the list for the second straight week.

We asked the Fox News star if he was excited by the news that FNC chairman and CEO Roger Ailes had signed on for another four years. “Excited? We’d be shocked if he hadn’t,” said O’Reilly.

Other notable tvnewsers at the event, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, who had a revealing feature on Spielberg last Sunday, “CBS This Morning’s” Gayle King, Charlie Rose, and EP Chris Licht. MSNBC’s Chris Jansing and Lawrence O’Donnell, who ducked out during the Q&A to make it back to 30 Rock for his 10pm show. CNN execs Mark Whitaker, Ken Jautz and Bart Feder and ABC’s “This Week” EP Sandy Cannold.

And, after an early morning co-hosting “GMA,” Oprah Winfrey also attended. She gave a bear hug to Kushner. Then, exiting the theater — appropriately at the Loews Lincoln Square on the Upper

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