CNN has lined up a celebrity team for the fifth annual “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” which will air on December 11 at 8pmET. Anderson Cooper will host the special, which will feature the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011 as voted by the fans. Each will have their story told by a celebrity, including will.i.am, Christy Turlington Burns and Kurt Warner. A live pre-show red carpet will be hosted by  J.R. Martinez of “Dancing with the Stars.”

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In our four-week Social Media 101 online conference and workshop starting January 19, you’ll get hands-on, basic training on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube, and Flickr. Speakers include Jessica Bennett (Newsweek.com, The Daily Beast), Erica Swallow (Mashable), and Brian Stelter (The New York Times). Register today!

Wow. Is it that time of year all ready?

Well, yes it is. When publishers come up with end of the year lists. Here’s one from the December GQ: the magazine’s list of “The 25 least Influential People Alive” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz comes in at #3. Ouch.

…Then there pundits like Ed Schultz. Do you watch “The Ed Show” on MSNBC? Of course you don’t. No one does. The only reason people watch “The Ed Show” is they’re working out in a hotel gym and they can’t find a staff member to change the channel to ESPN.

Also on the list: Tia and Tamera Mowry (#4). (Tamera married Fox News correspondent Adam Housley over the summer); also Tina Brown (#17), John Boehner (#24) and Pres. Obama (#25). Topping the list former GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty.

Steve Capus of NBC News and Martha Raddatz of ABC News will be honored with RTDNF First Amendment Awards in 2012.

Capus, the president of NBC News, will be presented with the First Amendment Leadership Award, which goes to a “business or government leader who has made sigificant contribution to protecting freedom of the press.”

Raddatz, the senior foreign affairs correspondent at ABC News, will receive the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award, which is named for the former senior Washington correspondent at Broadcasting & Cable.

The awards will be presented at a black-tie reception on March 15, 2012, in Washington, DC. Other 2012 winners are Marci Burdick, the senior vice president of Schurz Communications, and Jim Bohannon, an anchor at Dial Global Radio Networks.

 

NBC apologized to GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann Wednesday over the musical introduction during her appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Monday night. The show’s drummer Questlove had played the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” Fallon apologized via Twitter on Tuesday but yesterday on Fox News, Bachmann demanded an apology from the network. And she got it. Via CNN:

Bachmann received a letter Wednesday from Doug Vaughan, NBC’s senior vice president for special programs and late night, that apologized for what happened, said Alice Stewart, the Republican presidential hopeful’s spokeswoman.

The issue was also a topic this morning on the “Today” show, with a story from Kristen Welker and this Q&A with John Harwood:

Updated Below

CNN has announced that Larry King‘s fourth special for the channel will be a bit different than the last few. Rather than featuring traditional interviews, the special, called “Larry King Special: A Dinner with Kings” features the host and his wife hosting a dinner party featuring some big Hollywood names. The special will air December 4th, with replays slated for the following weekend on CNN and CNN International.

The guests are Tyra Banks, Russell Brand, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, Quincy Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Conan O’Brien, and Shaquille O’Neal, with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck preparing the meal:

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• On a day when many Americans are spending time enjoying a large meal with their families, ABC News is planning to focus on the plight of those less fortunate. The network will present reports from its ongoing “Hunger at Home” series on “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer” and other programs today and tomorrow. David Muir and Juju Chang will report on Americans that can’t afford to put food on the table, as well as communities that have come together to help those in need.

Former Arkansas governor and current Fox News Channel host Mike Huckabee will be hosting a GOP primary debate of his own December 3. Rather than being a proper “debate,” FNC is calling it a “forum,” and rightly so. The New York Times has the letter FNC sent to the candidates, and it assures them that “At no point will candidates have on-air interaction with each other,” and that there will be no studio audience.

So far Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and former FNC contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have agreed to attend. Invitations are out to the other candidates.

While the Green Bay Packers head east across Lake Michigan to take on the Detroit Lions this afternoon, a Milwaukee radio host headed north to the home of the Packers, Lambeau Field, on foot.

J. Pat Miller who hosts a midday show on 94.5 Lake FM in Milwaukee walked 112 miles to Green Bay. He started last Tuesday and arrived Friday.

“The walk was long and painful, but the feeling when I arrived at Lambeau was intense,” said Miller, who helped raise nearly $28,500 for a Thanksgiving program which will feed 800 Wisconsin families today.

• CNBC will be live tomorrow morning with coverage from CNBC Europe keeping an eye on the markets across the continent. CNBC U.S. will simulcast CNBC Europe from 5am-7amET and again from 10am-NoonET. In between, CNBC U.S. will air two documentaries: “Pepsi’s Challenge” and “Target: Inside the Bullseye.”

 

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 293 | MSNBC: 140 | CNN: 253 | HLN: 85

• Primetime: FNC: 400 | MSNBC: 205 | CNN: 829 | HLN: 88

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	359	383	434	489	338	365	379	247
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	EdShow:	Maddow:
	128	178	176	160	246	209	176	140
CNN	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Burnett:	Debate:	Debate:	Cooper:	Debate:	Debate:
	175	148	160	1.041	1.041	405	339	339
HLN	Special:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Behar:	Showbiz:	DrDrew:
	88	96	107	118	99	53	56	62

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