Update: CBS News president David Rhodes denies all facts of the story. “It’s not happening, it’s not going to happen,” he tells us. “This story is just wrong.”

Rome Hartman tells TVNewser, “Your report this morning is untrue. Flat wrong. Unfair to me, and unfair to CBS. I’m fully engaged in and excited about my job with BBC News.

Earlier: TVNewser had reported that former CBS Evening News EP Rome Hartman was to return to CBS News and that Patricia Shevlin, long-time EP of the weekend “Evening News,” was expected to replace David Friedman as e.p. of the “Early Show.”

CBS News president David Rhodes tore into his morning news program, “Early Show,” today telling staffers in an email, “CBS News had a great weekend. And a bad Monday morning.”

Rhodes, who’s been on the job just shy of two months, sent an email to the staff and cc’d the show toppers of the weekend shows, “60 Minutes,” “48 Hours” and “Sunday Morning.”

Rhodes was miffed that while the weekend shows broke news or had newsmaking interviews, none of it turned up on Monday’s “Early.”

“Many of you on the Early Show have asked for clarity on what we want. Several times we have talked about sustained coverage of stories which are our own—I mentioned this several times the week after our story on Orlando’s motel homeless. Let’s get with it. Where’s our reporting? Make sure it’s in our show.”

“Early” has been mired in third place since it debuted in 1999; the anchor team was replaced earlier this year, before Rhodes took over; and the show has had four different executive producers in the last 3 and a half years (five if you include interim EP Rick Kaplan). This morning’s memo, sent just 15 minutes after the show ended, is directed squarely at current EP David Friedman who’s been with the show for 13 months.

Rhodes’ memo after the jump…

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• “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams is on his way to Cairo right now. He left New York Sunday afternoon arriving in Amman, Jordan and is now en route to Egypt. He’s expected to arrive in time for “Nightly News.”

• CBS’ Katie Couric, after a weekend in Miami Beach, is leaving for Egypt today. “Evening News” EP Rick Kaplan will travel with her. Harry Smith will be filling in at the anchor desk tonight.

• ABC’s Diane Sawyer is not going to Cairo “at this time,” says a spokesperson. Christiane Amanpour is leading ABC’s coverage in Egypt.

Andy Rooney is 92 today.  His birthday comes exactly one week after that of a fellow CBSer, who was surprised when Rooney and many other Tiffany network colleagues made cameos in a birthday video tribute to her.

Les Moonves, Sean McManus, Rick Kaplan, and Susan Zirinsky appear, along with a certain Today show anchor. The identity of the birthday girl, after the jump…  Read more

CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves — sans wife Julie Chen who is fully ensconced in L.A. for her ensemble daytime show, “The Talk” — celebrated with his CBS minions, and the press who cover them, at CBS’ Black Rock headquarters last night.

CBS' annual airing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" drew 12.2 million viewers Nov. 30.

Several stars of CBS primetime shows were there, including Tom Selleck who stars in “Blue Bloods,” and Christine Baranski and Matt Czuchry of “The Good Wife.” And while Moonves can tout having the most-watched TV network, the stars of his struggling news division also worked the room — including the new front four of “The Early Show:” Erica Hill, Chris Wragge,  Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro. The team will be hitting the road next week, making stops at several CBS affiliates where the #3-in-the-ratings show performs relatively well. (Our sister blog TVSpy reports Wragge’s last day on WCBS is today.)

We talked with show EP David Friedman and CBS News & Sports President Sean McManus who both expressed their confidence in the team. “It’ll take some time,” said McManus, “but this is a good group. I’m excited.”

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CBS launches its new series “Tough Choices” tonight on the CBS “Evening News with Katie Couric” at 6:30pmET.  The launch is in conjunction with the bipartisan Federal Deficit Commission’s final report. “In the near term, there is no more pressing domestic issue for America than the deficit,” said Executive Producer Rick Kaplan said.

ABC News is starting an on-going special of their own titled “Afghanistan: Can We Win?” which will air across all ABC platforms. The series kicks off with George Stephanopoulos co-anchoring “Good Morning America” from Kabul on Monday and continues throughout the week with reports from Martha Raddatz, Nick Schifrin, Bob Woodruff, and Mike Boettcher.

The press releases for the specials are after the jump…

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Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer were among the presenters at last night’s Glamour Women of the Year awards ceremony.

ABC’s Christiane Amanpour appeared in taped message presenting an award. Other tvnewsers in the audience at Carnegie Hall: CBS Evening News EP Rick Kaplan, CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux and Oprah BFF and former local news anchor Gayle King.

Winfrey presented an award to Julia Roberts. Other winners included Fergie, Donatella Versace, four female heads of state and Cher, who was presented a lifetime achievement award.

Barbara Walters was presented a lifetime achivement award in 1999 and Couric was given awards in 1992, 2002 and 2006. This was the 20th year anniversary of the mag’s Women of Year Awards.

Katie Couric‘s 5-year contract with CBS is nearing its end, but the anchor told Howard Kurtz, who joined “The Daily Beast” this month, that she’s too busy on the campaign trail to  worry about the future: “I’ll have to think long and hard about the choices I have going forward.”

“When she’s on the road—in Iraq with David Petraeus—she has a great way with people,” Rick Kaplan, Couric’s executive producer, told Kurtz “People like her and she likes them. There are anchors who consider being on the road a pain in the butt. She really looks for opportunities to feel the earth and touch people.”

“It’s great for me to get out of the chair and into the world,” Couric said to Kurtz, “I started out as a reporter, and I still enjoy reporting.”

While on the move as a reporter during the election, Couric seems (at least to Kurtz) that she is staying put at CBS. As for her salary…Couric stays mum on the issue: “I’ve never really talked about my salary. I think a lot of people in my business are paid handsomely.”

Unlike her salary, Couric was happy to talk about her 100,000 Twitter followers. “My friends accuse me of becoming a bit of a Twitter addict,” Couric told “The Daily Beast.”

Now that David Westin has confirmed that he will be leaving ABC News, the speculation about his replacement can begin. Unlike anchors, who are high profile and in the public eye, TV news executives often stay behind the curtain.

We put together a list of some of our top contenders to the slot, including internal ABC Newsers Paul Slavin of ABC News Digital and Robin Sproul from the network’s DC bureau, as well as Emily Barr from ABC affiliate WLS Chicago. We also included some high profile picks from outside of the Disney family, like FNC’s Michael Clemente and CBS’ Rick Kaplan, both of whom used to work at ABC News.

Cast your vote, or submit your own pick, in our poll after the jump.

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The AP catches up with “CBS Evening News” EP Rick Kaplan after, as we reported yesterday, the newscast tied its lowest all-time weekly average, despite anchor Katie Couric‘s live reporting from Afghanistan. The AP writes that the ratings “have to be discouraging to news organizations contemplating expensive assignments in a tough economy.” But Kaplan says he wasn’t expecting a ratings jump:

“We think the story was worth it,” he said. “I make no apologies for it at all. We didn’t expect any huge ratings surplus. What was important to us was that we do it and we do it well.”

By those standards, the trip “was a complete and utter success,” he said.

“Evening News” averaged 4.89 million total viewers for the week. On Thursday and Friday, the two days Couric anchored from Afghanistan, the newscast drew 4.69 million viewers and 4.38 million viewers, respectively.