Michael Starr

Michael Starr

exclusive

John Muller is returning to Ch. 11

Exclusive: John Muller is returning to Ch. 11 to co-anchor the station’s 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts, where he will be reunited with Tamsen Fadal.

Fadal’s current co-anchor, Scott Stanford, will become the station’s lead sports anchor as Ch. 11 makes a move to increase its sports coverage.

Muller, who was one of the original co-anchors of “The WB11 Morning News” when it launched in 2000 — he worked alongside Fadal for three years in various iterations — left Ch. 11 in 2011 for ABC News, where he’s anchored “World News Now” and “America This Morning” while also serving as a fill-in news reader on “Good Morning America” and as an ABC News correspondent.

Muller’s return to Ch. 11 is targeted for Monday, June 23 — the same day Stanford moves to the sports desk.

“I sat down and thought about how crazy my life has been — 15 of the last 17 years I’ve been working the early mornings or overnights,” Muller says. “To be the main anchor in prime time … and the prestige that comes with it, that’s clearly my priority.

“ABC was wonderful and I will forever be grateful that I saw the network. It was everything I wanted,” he says. “It would be fair to say that leaving ABC … is something I will probably think about every day of my life.

“And on the heels of that, without a doubt, I need to get more than four-and-a-half hours of sleep a night. It’s a win/win on both fronts.”

“I knew John from his earlier stints and was a fan of his overnight work at ABC and the stars aligned,” says Mark Effron, VP/news director of WPIX. “This is also happening at a time when we’re playing much more aggressively in sports, and with Scott heading up our revitalized sports effort … to have someone with his ability to be our front person on that … we’re very excited.”

Last, but not least …

Busy times for comedian Chris Distefano (MTV2’s “Off the Bat,” “Guy Code”). His Comedy Central special “The Half Hour” (also featuring Michael Che) premieres this Friday night. Distefano also makes his Carolines on Broadway headlining debut this Thursday through Sunday.

Christian Borle, Megan Hilty and Tom Cavanagh will be in Times Square Tuesday to promote Disney Junior’s first original movie, “Lucky Duck,” premiering June 20 (7 p.m.).

Reegency: Regis Philbin is slated to attend the release party Tuesday for Tom Cantone’s tome “Book ’Em” (1 p.m.) at the Friars Club.

“Power” (50 Cent) premieres 9 p.m. Saturday on Starz.

TBS has ordered a third season (eight episodes) of “King of the Nerds,” airing this fall with hosts Robert Carradine and Curtis “Booger” Armstrong.

“Reel Talk Live,” with host Mike Salk, premieres Sunday (10 p.m.) on Nat Geo after the season finale of “Wicked Tuna.”

Thursday: Judy Sheindlin (“Judge Judy”) receives the 2014 Mary Pickford Award at the Heroes of Hollywood Awards lunch at The Taglyan Cultural Complex in Hollywood.