The show "American Morning" was created in the months following the Sept. 11th attacks. Though it has had many incarnations over the years, the show's staff has worked endlessly to provide the best news to our viewers in the morning.

You may have heard that we're morphing into two new shows. Starting Monday, January 2nd, in our time slot you'll see Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield & Zoraida Sambolin from 5am to 7am Eastern, and Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien from 7am to 9am Eastern.

The new shows will be produced by many members of the old AM family, and a few new awesome additions. Though the name and the look is different, our goal is the same.

To our AM viewers, we appreciate your loyalty over the years and we hope you'll be as excited for our new shows as we are. For newcomers, we hope you stick along for the ride...because it's going to be a great one.

Have a very happy, healthy and safe New Year and we'll see you on January 2nd, 2012.

–AM staff

P.S. you can follow our new shows on Twitter and Facebook!

Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield & Zoraida Sambolin
Twitter: @earlystartcnn
Facebook: Facebook.com/earlystartcnn

Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien
Twitter: @startingptcnn
Facebook: Facebook.com/startingpointcnn

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly talks about security measures taken for the New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on claims the NYPD spies on Muslim communities.

House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday he expected the House to pass a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday today.

The announcement of the extension was a dramatic turn from just days ago - when the speaker called the short-term extension "nonsense."

The deal will keep 168 million working families from facing a tax hike on New Year's Day. But many Republicans aren't happy with the deal.

Freshman Congressman Tim Huelskamp is one of them. He talks with Alina Cho this morning.

Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" is expected to be the holiday blockbuster of the season.  The movie follows the story of a young man who enlists to fight in WWI after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry – an epic journey that explores a bond of friendship, loyalty and courage.  It stars Jeremy Irvine, who makes his feature film debut.  In fact, Irvine was personally selected by director Steven Spielberg because of his fresh face and the fact he was unknown.

Today on American Morning, Ali Velshi and Alina Cho sit down with Irvine to talk about what it was like to work with Steven Spielberg.

It's just five days until Christmas.  If you're holding off on holiday shopping because you're anxious find that perfect gift, don't worry.  New research shows that you don't need to spend that much time thinking – or even have to spend all that much money.

Alina Cho sits down with columnist John Tierney to discuss what it takes to find the perfect gift.