“The best journalism is, at its core, great storytelling,” said CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker at CNN’s upfront presentation Thursday. Along those lines, the news network announced new shows with Mike Rowe and Lisa Ling, as well as a new series called “The Jesus Code” to join existing series from Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock.

With a focus on primetime, CNN will debut a new 10 p.m. show this year called “CNN Tonight,” an hour-long program that recaps the day in news featuring rotating anchors. The 9 p.m. space, replacing Piers Morgan’s timeslot, will be dedicated to CNN Original Series, CNN Films and docu-series such as “Anderson Cooper’s The Survivor Diaries.”

Also adding to the schedule are Mike Rowe’s “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” a show that takes the “Dirty Jobs” host to visit entrepreneurs and innovators making waves in their fields; “Our America With Lisa Ling,” a travel series about bizarre and overlooked sub-cultures; “The Hunt With John Walsh,” a true-crime program with the “America’s Most Wanted” host; and a historical look at biblical lore in “The Jesus Code.”

CNN also announced this week a partnership with Twitter for a short-form video series called “Your 15 Second Morning,” being billed as a morning show for the Twitter audience. The series will kick off its larger digital initiative, CNN Digital Studios, which launched last year and hopes to expand the net’s video presence.

Sister news network HLN, fresh off its social-centered rebrand, continued with its plan to appeal to the “social media generation” at Thursday’s upfronts. HLN EVP and GM Albie Hecht unveiled a development slate that includes a new nightly news show, competition series, late-night brands and new shows to feature social media personalities.

New projects for HLN include a reality series from YouTube personality Jessica Edwards, game show “America’s Most Liked,” weekly news roundup “What’s Trending” and a late-night talk show with Chuey Martinez. A partnership with Twitter will also bring data from the platform on-air, whether as trending segments on news programs or as part of election coverage with #TweetTheVote.

“Twitter is at the center of the social circle of what’s trending, topical and talked about,” said Hecht. “As HLN becomes the TV hub of social media newsgathering, collaborating with Twitter will provide us the tools to further be a part of, and report on, the conversation.”

Also at Thursday’s upfronts, WEtv presents its new slate of unscripted projects that includes a relationship game show from Charlie Sheen, adding to a slate of its first original scripted series “The Divide” and new shows “Mystery Millionaire” and “David Tutera’s CELEBrations.”

On the Newfronts side, it was announced this week that PBS Digital Studios and Endemol Beyond will join the lineup this May to push Web series like PBS’ “Bob Ross Remixed: Happy Little Clouds” and to give the digital arm more general publicity. Endemol Beyond, currently in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, plans to highlight recent deals the studio made with big names like Pitbull and Courtney Love, as well as its first original comedy Web series.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Lost Remote and Adweek.

Brief Take: In a constant battle to get primetime audiences for news, CNN and HLN are shifting their focus away from talking heads, more toward engagement, whether that takes the form of social interaction or including the audience on a larger storyline, as evidenced by CNN’s new primetime lineup.

[Image courtesy of CNN]

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