HLN “Morning Express” anchor Robin Meade is hosting a special primetime hour tomorrow — Veterans Day. “Salute to Troops: Stories of Courage” features the stories of veterans and their families; some of whom have paid the ultimate price for the nation.

Meade traveled across the U.S. for the special. From West Point, Meade interviews Capt. Scotty Smiley a soldier who was blinded and partially paralyzed after an IED attack while serving in Iraq. Meade also features the Blue Star Moms, an organization formed by mothers whose sons and daughters were already serving in the military when the US was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. And Meade meets Dan Nevins and Bryan Wagner who share their stories of the battlefield, rehab and achievements since joining the Wounded Warrior Project.

The special airs on HLN Friday night at 7pmET and will reair Saturday and Sunday at 7pmET.

HLN’s web presence has long been relegated to a subsection of CNN.com. That in and of itself is not a bad thing, as CNN has one of the strongest digital presences of any news organization. But as the focus of coverage by CNN and HLN have diverged, executives at the company decided that CNN’s sister channel deserved a website to call its own.

Last week, HLN quietly launched HLNtv.com. Scot Safon, the executive VP in charge of HLN, says that the has been in the works for about a year, and is still in “beta.”

“It is like a Broadway show, it is in previews right now,” Safon told TVNewser, explaining that while the look is about right, the site as a whole is still a work in progress. “Where the site is three weeks from now is probably more reflective of what It ultimately will be.”

CNN.com will continue to serve as the publisher of HLNtv.com, though HLN will have editorial control of the site. In August, HLN laid off a number of employees as it changed its editorial structure to more closely align TV and digital production. That new structure results in a web presence that shares a voice with the TV programs, Safon says.

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Think HLN will be forgoing political coverage in 2012? Think again.

“We are definitely focused on that story, because that is going to be driving the news water cooler in this country in 2012,” HLN executive VP Scot Safon tells TVNewser.

HLN is planning to cover the 2012 elections from a decidedly different angle than the other cable news outlets however. The channel is planning to focus on the people behind the politics, by telling viewers more about the politicians themselves, as well as their families and staff.

Safon points to the recent interview Herman Cain gave to Robin Meade, as well as the follow-up stories from the channel, as what they were looking to accomplish:

As an example, Safon mentioned HLN’s 9 PM host Dr. Drew Pinsky, and how he might approach coverage of politicians:

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Jae-Ha Kim who writes the “Go Away With…” series for Tribune newspapers talks with HLN’s Robin Meade about her favorite vacation destinations.

The HLN “Morning Express” anchor has “fallen in love with St. Thomas,” in the U.S. Virgin Islands. For a quick getaway, Meade and her husband “take off for Lake Sinclair in Georgia.” And where would she like to go, that she has never been: “One would be Australia. The second would be Italy.”

As for her favorite U.S. cities:

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Robin Meade is a busy woman. In addition to her day job anchoring “Morning Express with Robin Meade” on HLN, she has spent the past two years co-writing a country music album, “Brand New Day,” which was released last week.

Meade calls balancing it all “a test of patience.” She says she gets most of her thinking and planning done on the four-hour drive between Atlanta, where HLN is based, and Nashville, where she recorded the album. “I would think about the concepts I wanted to write that day,” Meade tells TVNewser. “I was so excited to do this.”

Meade’s challenge was to find inspiration for her music in her news career, and vice versa.

• Now On TVSpy: Meade: In Local TV “There is something to learn at every stage.”

“We really try to convey the human experience,” she said of “Morning Express.” “This week we had the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan. You can get a story like that, and you can go on about how many people were killed, and how many stories of the hotel are on fire, and who did it. But we always try to focus on the human experience. So we focused on a student, and he hit the floor of his room and he prayed, ‘I hope I survive this.’ To me, that makes a great story.”

“We are attracted to the human condition,” she continued. “As people, we’re attracted to each others’ wins and losses and trials and experiences. Not because we want other people to lose, but because

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MSNBC’s primetime lineup continued to be a source of strength for the network in the second quarter of 2011, beating CNN to second place in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic for the seventh consecutive quarter.

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 788K Total Viewers / 261K A25-54

• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 439K Total Viewers / 156K A25-54

Year-over-year, MSNBC is up 13% in primetime A25-54 viewers and 3% in total viewers.

That growth is primarily from Rachel Maddow and Ed Schulz. At 8 PM. Lawrence O’Donnell‘s “The Last Word” was down =12% in total viewers and =5% in the demo compared to “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann last year.’

“Morning Joe” had its best quarter in three years, topping CNN’s “American Morning” in total viewers (485,000 vs. 324,000) and HLN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade” (485,000 vs. 329,000). “Morning Joe” is up 23% in total viewers and 31% in A25-54 viewers compared to the first half of 2010.

The full MSNBC press release is after the jump.

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HLN’s Robin Meade has been tapped to co-host “Music Builds: The CMT Disaster Relief Concert,” airing live on CMT tomorrow night at 9pmET. HLN will re-broadcast the special, which is being held at the Grand Ole Opry, Sunday at 9pmET.

ESPN’s Erin Andrews and comedian Ron White co-host the evening meant to raise awareness and funds for those affected by the recent storms, tornadoes and ongoing flooding across the south. All money raised will go to American Red Cross Disaster Relief efforts.

HLN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade” is adding Carlos Diaz as sports anchor. Diaz will anchor sports segments, and will also serve as a guest host on other HLN programs.

Diaz has guest hosted some HLN programs before, and most recently worked on the syndicated program “Extra,” where he had served as a correspondent for eight years. He also hosted the syndicated show “Celebrity justice,” which sounds like it would be right up HLN’s alley.

He debuted on the program in somewhat dramatic fashion this morning:

More info, after the jump.
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Have you heard? There is some sort of wedding happening tomorrow.

Yes, the broadcast and cable news organizations are all planning coverage of the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton tomorrow morning, with most beginning at 4 AM.

TVNewser will be liveblogging the coverage starting at 4, so if you want to follow along, find out about all the coverage plans below.

Broadcast:

NBC: Coverage starts at 4 AM ET, led by Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Brian Williams, Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Ann Curry from London. More coverage plans here.

ABC: Coverage starts at 4 AM ET, led by Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters from London. More coverage plans here.

CBS: Coverage starts at 4 AM ET, led by Katie Couric and Erica Hill from London. More coverage plans here.

Univision: Coverage starts at 3 AM ET, led by Chiquinquirá Delgado, Raúl González and Marián de la Fuente.

Cable News:

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With Dr. Drew Pinsky set to make his HLN debut Monday at 9 PM, HLN is making tweaks to its lineup.

The biggest move: “Morning Express with Robin Meade,” which has become in many respects HLN’s strongest performing show, will expand an hour to noon ET.

That means that Meade will be on HLN for a full six hours every weekday morning.

Update: Or not, Meade usually anchors til 10 AM ET, with someone else filling in from there.

HLN is also prepping for Pinsky’s arrival by launching a Dr. Drew show blog, as well as Twitter and Facebook pages.

More information on the HLN moves, after the jump.

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