• Saturday at 3 PM, CNN and Turner Sports will air a one-hour special tied to the Final Four. “CNN All Access at the Final Four” will be hosted by Rachel Nichols and Reggie Miller. Turner Sports and CBS Sports share the TV rights to the March Madness tourney.

• The American Journalism Review looks at the anniversary of the Iraq war, and talks to foreign correspondents, including Fox News contributor and former foreign correspondent Dominic Di-Natale.

• The NBC rumor of the day: is Hoda Kotb looking for another job? Entertainment Weekly‘s James Hibberd says that Kotb has been taking meetings with other media companies, though it doesn’t sound like a departure is imminent.

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Nichols said that Morgan’s producer Jonathan Wald had something to do with CNN’s decision to hire her.

“He will wait and see how you do,” Morgan quipped to Nichols. “He will claim all the credit if you are successful, and if not he will have never heard of you.”

WATCH:

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This year the Big Game is on CBS, but that isn’t stopping the other networks from trying to get a piece of the action.

CNN will have a Super Bowl pre-game show on Saturday at 4 PM. “Kickoff in New Orleans: A CNN-Bleacher Report Special,” will be co-hosted by Turner Sports anchor Ernie Johnson and the newly-hired Rachel Nichols. CNN says that it will add daily sports updates to CNN and HLN, and will use the Bleacher Report brand-name for all sports programming going forward. Bleacher Report was acquired by Turner Sports last year.

NBC’s “Today” is launching a segment this month called “Today’s Field Trips,” which will see Al Roker and Natalie Morales travel to different cities every Friday. Shocker: this Friday is the first edition, and they are going to Baltimore and San Francisco, the home of the two teams playing in the Super Bowl. They will be hanging out with NFL fans.

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• Via J$P, University of Dayton student Steven Wright analyses CNN’s recent decision to replace Sports Illustrated content on CNN.com with news from new Turner property Bleacher Report. CNN just hired ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols to beef up its TV sports reportage.

• CNBC has slated a new primetime special about the business of death. “Death: It’s a Living” has correspondent Tyler Mathisen examining the economics behind the $17 billion a year industry of death and dying.

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Nichols was a workhouse at ESPN, contributing to “SportsCenter,” “NBA Countdown,” “Sunday NFL Countdown” and ESPN’s newsmagazine “E:60.” The new CNN program, which will debut “later this year” also opens up synergistic possibilities for Turner, which has invested heavily in sports programming under David Levy. The company has in the last few years secured NCAA basketball playoff games, and signed new long-term deals with the NBA and MLB.

The move also underscores new CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker‘s desire to diversify news on the network, moving beyond politics and the same handful of stories that get repeated on all the cable channels.

“We’re just thrilled that a sports journalist of Rachel’s stature and expertise will now be a regular part of the CNN lineup,” said Zucker in a statement. “Her arrival, beginning next week, is an important step in expanding the range of programming and storytelling on CNN.”

More information, including comments from Nichols and Levy, after the jump.
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NBC’s “Today” and “NBC Nightly News will be live on-site in the city, with “Access Hollywood,” Weather Channel’s “Wake up With Al,” MSNBC and CNBC all delivering live reports from around New Orleans.

Other programs will have football content as well, including “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and “Minute to Win It,” which will have an episode where the contestants are all former players.

There will also be a “back to football” parade through the French Quarter, which will feature performances from Dave Matthews Band and Taylor Swift.

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