NBC News has shaken up its leadership team, promoting DC bureau chief Antoine Sanfuentes (left) to senior VP of NBC News, promoting David Verdi to senior VP of newsgathering, upping Ken Strickland to DC bureau chief and naming Alex Wallace (center) EP of “Rock Center.” For Wallace, it’s a return to overseeing a Brian Williams broadcast. Wallace was EP of “Nightly News” in 2007-2008.

Rome Hartman, (right) the former longtime CBS News producer who launched “Rock Center” as EP, will be shifting to the specials unit with a focus on election coverage.

Announcing the changes, NBC News president Steve Capus highlighted that the new executive ranks all came from inside NBC.

As you read the list of promotions and changes spelled out in this note, please keep in mind I’ve decided to stay inside our talent-rich organization for each of these moves – a real testament to the contributions of these individuals and the bench strength of NBC News.

Sanfuentes, who joined NBC News as a desk assistant in 1990, rose through the producer and executive ranks and was named DC bureau chief in January 2011. In his new role he will be Capus’ chief deputy at NBC News in New York. Wallace, who had been Capus #2, will remain a senior VP and will add oversight of “Rock Center” as well as “Ann Curry’s production unit and our health initiative.”

Verdi, a longtime NBC Newser, who had been VP of newsgathering, is now a senior VP, adding oversight of news affiliate partnerships and the NBC News Channel.

Joining Strickland in DC will be Meaghan Rady, once a producer for Tom Brokaw, who rose through the ranks and will now be deputy bureau chief.

“I’m grateful to Rome for his leadership, signified by Rock Center’s first Emmy last week for Bob Costas’ breakthrough interview with Jerry Sandusky,” Capus writes in his note, which you can read in full after the jump.

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The Hollywood Reporter‘s Marisa Guthrie profiles Bob Costas–the face of NBC’s Olympics coverage–in a wide-ranging cover story.

Among the topics of discussion, Costas’ interview with Jerry Sandusky, which netted him and “Rock Center” an Emmy nomination. Guthrie adds that since the Sandusky interview, NBC News has been making a concerted effort to have Costas on more often.

As Amendola was en route to New York — on an NBC-chartered plane — executives began to see promos for a CNN interview with him. “I expressed my displeasure in fairly colorful terms,” says executive producer Rome Hartman, adding that he does not know if Amendola made the last-minute and now-infamous suggestion to get Sandusky on the phone with Costas out of a misguided effort to make amends. “He knew, and we kept reiterating, that what we really wanted was an interview with his client.”

The segment on the Brian Williams-hosted newsmagazine ran for eight minutes, but Costas pushed for more. “I felt like they should have blown out whatever segment was after it,” he says. (It was a piece about Alabama’s controversial immigration law.) “They did make more time for it than they had originally formatted. Let’s put it this way: They had a big inning but left a few men on base.”

In retrospect, Hartman agrees, though he points out, “There was no shortage of damning stuff” in those eight minutes. “It was a phoner, and it was one of the most gripping interviews that any of us will ever see,” he says. “Bob was pitch-perfect. He was respectful on a human level, but he didn’t give a single inch.”

The discussion also touches upon the Olympics, and what Costas has planned for the Opening Ceremonies:
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With Kentucky’s 67-59 win over Kansas last night, March Madness has officially come to an end. That also means that it is time to declare a winner in TVNewser’s 2012 March Madness bracket challenge.

Your 2012 TVNewser bracket challenge winner is…

Fox Business Network stocks editor Liz MacDonald!

“It was great fun going up against really tough competition,” MacDonald says. “I am honored and thrilled to be this year’s champion.”

It was a close match this year, with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux and Kyra Phillips very close behind MacDonald in the standings. This is the second straight year that a competitor for one of the business news networks won. Last year’s winner was Bloomberg TV’s Dominic Chu. Chu also had a good showing this year, placing ninth.

In last place, tragically, was your humble TVNewser editor, who clearly needs to reevaluate his college basketball picking skills. My strategy of picking teams who had cool mascots (Blue Devils? Awesome!) may not have been the most sound.

A big “Thank You!” to all of this year’s participants.

The final standings are below.
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Have you been watching some of the first round games? Holy moly. Lehigh? Ohio? Norfolk State? Suffice it to say a lot of brackets are in trouble, and our TV news competition is no exception.

Right now NBC’s Rome Hartman (our 2010 champion) is tied for first with CNN’s Randi Kaye, with Kyra Phillips nipping at their heels. Most of the competitors are in the middle of the pack, with CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield and CNBC’s John Melloy at the bottom. Have no fear though, there is plenty of time to make up ground.

The full standings are after the jump.

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Spring is in the air, and that can only mean two things: March Madness and TVNewser’s 2012 bracket challenge.

Every March we have TV news talent, executives and producers fill out their brackets and make their picks, with the winner receiving the ultimate prize: bragging rights.

Last year’s champion–Bloomberg TV’s Dominic Chu–is back to defend his crown, but there is some steep competition from across the TV news spectrum.

Game on.

Here is your 2012 TVNewser March Madness lineup:

Team Bloomberg TV:

Returning champ: Dominic Chu, markets reporter, Bloomberg TV

Cory Johnson, editor-at-large, Bloomberg TV

Stephanie Ruhle, correspondent, Bloomberg TV

Team Fox News/Fox Business Network:

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Friends and colleagues from across the TV spectrum joined Andy Rooney‘s four children this morning at Rose Hall, bidding farewell to the CBS News essayist, who died November 4 following complications from minor surgery.

Rooney’s son Brian Rooney, a longtime correspondent at ABC News, hosted the memorial service which included remarks from Andy Rooney’s three daughters, Ellen Rooney, Emily Rooney and Martha Fishel and Rooney’s girlfriend of 7 years, former “Today” show “girl” Beryl Pfizer, who had known Rooney since 1950. Rooney’s grandchildren were there, including Justin Fishel Pentagon producer for Fox News Channel.

Brian Rooney talked about how, over the past several weeks he’s gone through his father’s belongings and found everything from a $6,000 uncashed check from CBS, to a diary entry dated March 8, 1941: “Went to Gallagher’s. Don’t get chicken at a steakhouse.”

“What you saw, was the same show that we had at dinnertime,” said Rooney.

CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” EP Jeff Fager as well as Rooney’s “60″ family: Morley Safer, Steve Kroft and Scott Pelley all spoke at the service.

Safer talked of Rooney’s “rich, eccentric legacy.” A man who filled American homes “like a piece of the Sunday furniture, like a portrait on the wall, like the TV itself.”

Safer then introduced a video which included outtakes of his interview with Rooney conducted last Spring. Showing a picture of the early correspondents: Harry Reasoner, Mike Wallace and Diane Sawyer, Rooney stopped at Sawyer — who was not able to attend. “She’s the prettiest girl I

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Longtime CBS News executive Lane Venardos was fondly remembered Wednesday in a moving service at the Paley Center in New York City.

Venardos who died August 19 at his home in Maui, spent 30 years at CBS News producing live news, special events and documentaries. He would go on to produce the “Survivor” live finales for Mark Burnett on CBS.

More than 200 luminaries from across the television industry attended the memorial, including CBS News chairman Jeff Fager, News president David Rhodes; Charles Osgood, Scott Pelley, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, and Rita Braver; current “CBS Evening News” EP Pat Shevlin, CBS News VP Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews (who currently has the job Venardos once held) and “Sunday Morning” EP Rand Morrison.

Also Diane Sawyer, now with ABC News, who worked with Venardos during her time at CBS and from NBC: Brian Williams, News president Steve Capus and former CBSer, now EP of “Rock Center” Rome Hartman, were there, as was former CBS News president Andrew Heyward. ABC’s “This Week” EP Rick Kaplan, and former “GMA” boss Jim Murphy, both former CBS Newsers, attended.

Former CBS News and CBS, Inc. president Howard Stringer, who worked closely with Venardos during his years at CBS and who is now CEO of Sony, spoke via video. Other speakers included Pelley, Stahl, Williams and Venardos’s daughter Kelly who is a producer for “NBC Nightly News.” CBS News “48 Hours” EP Susan Zirinsky presented a video tribute (after the jump). The service concluded with a vocal solo performed by Venardos’s son, Kevin.

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Tom Bettag is the latest hire at NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams.” Bettag, who spent much of his 40 years in TV news working with Ted Koppel — recently named special correspondent for “Rock Center” — will be a segment producer on the show.

Bettag worked with Koppel at ABC News on “Nightline” and later for “Koppel on Discovery”

The award-winning Bettag is also a past executive producer of “The CBS Evening News” and mostly recently helmed CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.”

“Tom Bettag has one of the best reputations in television news,” said Rome Hartman, executive producer of “Rock Center.” “You can’t work in network television news without knowing the work — or the legacy of Tom Bettag,” adds Brian Williams.

“One night a week is plenty for us right now,” “Rock Center” EP Rome Hartman tells THR‘s Marisa Guthrie. “We neither want to be considered filler nor do we have any plans for world domination.”

With the launch of “Rock Center” a little more than two weeks away, it occurred to us that this will be the first launch of a new broadcast network newsmagazine in nearly a decade, when FOX launched “The Pulse” anchored by Shepard Smith in 2002. “The Pulse” ran that Summer and returned briefly in the Winter of 2003.

Spinoffs of established shows have been the norm for the last 20 years on network television. Mostly, newsmagazines have been filler for networks when more expensive scripted shows fail.

The granddaddy of them all, CBS’s “60 Minutes,” debuted in 1968. Its spinoff, “60 Minutes II” debuted in 1999. In 2004, the show’s name was changed to “60 Minutes Monday (and later Wednesday).” That name lasted until the following summer, but by then the show was on the chopping block because of “RatherGate.” At the time CBS Chairman Les Moonves said the cancellation, “was a ratings call and not a content call.” “60 Minutes II” had its last broadcast in September 2005.

ABC’s “20/20″ debuted in 1978. A second ABC Newsmagazine, “Primetime LIVE” with Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer, left, launched in 1989. In the late 1990s ABC put the shows together, using the “20/20″ branding. There was a “20/20 Monday,” “20/20 Wednesday,” “20/20 Thursday,” and the original “20/20″ on Friday. That lasted until 2000, when ABC relaunched “Primetime.” But even today, the brands are muddled. “Primetime” runs occasionally with Diane Sawyer interviews or true crime hours, while “20/20″ airs on Fridays and reports news of the day, newsmaker interviews as well as crime stories which are ratings grabbers.

NBC got into the newsmagazine business in 1992 with the launch of “Dateline NBC” anchored by Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips. For years, it has been used to plug holes in NBC’s primetime. NBC News had another brief run in primetime with “Now” which was anchored by Katie Couric and Tom Brokaw. The show would last a year in 1993-94 and would later be folded into “Dateline.” As you can see by the show’s open, right, it also used the iconic symbol of Rockefeller Center, the Prometheus statue.

“NBC Nightly News” will be getting a new set in the space that will soon be home to the primetime newsmagazine “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”

“Rock Center” executive producer Rome Hartman gives a tour of Studio 3B in the video below, pointing out where the new “Nightly” set will be located.

As Hartman notes, Studio 3B is a historic one for NBC News, having once been the home to “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” and “Today.”

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