After tweeting hints throughout the week, CNN anchor John King announced the name of his new political program, 'John King, USA,' via Twitter this morning. The show will debut Mar. 22 at 7PM, with an online preview on Mar. 19.

The former host of Sunday mornings' 'State of the Union with John King' is taking over Lou Dobbs' old 7PM spot on the cable news network, after the veteran anchor abruptly stepped down from his post last November.

In a statement published in the New York Times following his sudden Nov. 11 announcement that he'd leave CNN immediately, Lou Dobbs blamed the country's changing political direction for forcing his hand. "Over the past six months," he said, "it's become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us, and some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day."

Yet the events that led to Dobbs' abrupt departure were months, even years, in the making.

CNN's scramble to fill the programming gap left by the departure of Lou Dobbs has already come to an end. Whether or not the credibility gap he left will be filled as quickly remains to be seen. According to Variety, CNN has tapped veteran political reporter John King to take over the 7PM weekday time slot vacated by Dobbs earlier this week.

Dobbs, who had become a lightning rod for controversy thanks to his crusade against immigration, clashed repeatedly with his bosses at CNN before abruptly departing the network at the end of Wednesday night's episode of 'Lou Dobbs Tonight'.

The daytime segment of cable's first day concluded with four Turner-related panels: Joy Behar on her new HLN talk show; a CNN panel with John King, Christiance Amanpour, and Soledad O'Brien; a panel with Jerry Bruckheimer and the cast and producers of TNT's Dark Blue; and George Lopez, who is starting a new late night talk show on TBS.

Behar and Lopez bookended the session, and they were an interesting contrast. Two comedians, both opinionated, both with things to say about current events. But while Behar's gentle jabs played to mostly silence among the cranky writers in attendance, Lopez got more than a few of us to laugh. I've never been the biggest Lopez fan, but I have to admit, he was ready for us: he made most of us stand up to talk to him, he jostled us on our reluctance to be enthusiastic, and he was able to make pretty quick comebacks with ease. Must be the years of dealing with hecklers.

Anyway, after the jump, some details of Turner's day in Pasadena, including audio of an interview with O'Brien that I started with the word "cankles."

If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy), you haven't been able to sit still since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report went off the air for the holidays. It also may be because my body has absorbed more sugary fat from the holidays than one of Tyler Durden's homemade soaps.

Both shows returned to the airwaves Monday with new episodes. Both also had cable news celebrity cameos so big, no lightning fast news ticker announcing an accidental nuclear missile launch could draw your attention away from them.

The Daily Show returned with another appearance by CNN's gray-haired uber-anchor Anderson Cooper and an interesting interview with new Meet the Press moderator David Gregory. The Colbert Report picked up former Hannity and Colmes pushover Alan Colmes and wound things up with an interview with CNN reporter John King.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer must be running on Energizer batteries. Between his duties on his weekly The Situation Room program and Sunday's two-hour Late Edition talkfest, Wolf is on the air 17 hours a week. While this makes him the leader in face time over any other television anchor it probably doesn't bode well for his social and family life. Not to mention that he's probably missing the new season of According to Jim. So, the cable news network is doing something to free his schedule up.

Sometime in the new year, Wolf will step down from his Late Edition duties and will be replaced by chief political and magic map correspondent John King. The revamped Sunday schedule will begin at 9 a.m., with the first hour dedicated to politics and opinions on the new Obama administration. Later hours will touch on national and world affairs with commentary on current events. And, most likely, John will use the powers of the magic map to make some of the less likable pundits disappear.

Election night! Election night! Let's check out the folks at CNN. Is Wolf Blitzer going to lose his mind? Is Anderson Cooper going to be pretty? Is John King going to lovingly stroke the magic board? Let's find out.

9:00: That's what we've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more updates-- and maybe we'll have a new president. Not that CNN will project that.

8:59: Soledad O'Brien is looking at demographic information with Mr. Magoo. Poor Mr. Magoo can't work the touch screen because he's not tall enough. Hilariously, this comes at the point in which they're talking about how age is a factor in the way people vote.

8:57: Drink. They're not even making a projection in Arizona.

852: Can someone tell me what is up with these clean coal commercials? This is the 7,000th one I've seen today.

8:48: James Carville looks more and more like a reanimated corpse every day.