With election season finally over and a new president moving in next week, Fox News announced a major scheduling revamp, mostly affecting its daytime lineup.
The most notable changes have news anchor Martha MacCallum moving from her 7 p.m. Eastern slot to hosting a dayside show at 3 p.m.
Harris Faulkner will no longer host the 1 p.m. “Outnumbered Overtime”; instead she will host The Faulkner Focus at 11 a.m.
Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts is being rewarded for his stellar work aby moving to the studio as co-anchor of a new two-hour mid-day program with Sandra Smith. Roberts was a long-time CBS anchor before joining Fox a decade ago.
Smith, who hosted America’s Newsroom from 9-11 a.m. the past few years, will be replaced by Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer. Perino’s “Daily Briefing” Show (1 p.m. EST) has been cancelled.
New Weekday Daytime & Early Prime FNC Lineup (all times EST):
9-11 AM/ET – America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer & Dana Perino 11 AM/ET – The Faulkner Focus 12PM/ET – Outnumbered 1-3 PM/ET – America Reports with John Roberts & Sandra Smith 3 PM/ET – The Story with Martha MacCallum 4 PM/ET – Your World with Neil Cavuto 5 PM/ET – The Five 6 PM/ET – Special Report with Bret Baier 7PM/ET – Fox News Primetime
Over at HotAir, Allahpundit analyzed it thusly: "Fox was worried that too many MAGA fans hungry for outrage were turning the dial at 7 to get a dose of it from (Newsmax's Greg) Kelly and not all of them were turning back in time for Tucker at 8. Solution: Start the outrage programming on their own network an hour earlier and move MacCallum to the hard-news ghetto of daytime hours. "The new 7 p.m. show will be called “Fox News Primetime” and will feature a “rotating group of Fox News opinion hosts” until a permanent replacement is named. I assume that means they’re going to use the next few months as informal tryouts. Maybe Gutfeld gets a turn, Will Cain, Pete Hegseth, and so on. Or maaaaaybe Fox will try to poach Kelly himself from Newmax and simply bring his audience back into the fold that way. Given how much more FNC is able to pay him than Newsmax is, I bet Kelly’s reviewing his contract terms closely today.
As for MacCallum, it was more than just one bad night against Kelly in December. Fox brass “clearly don’t think [MacCallum] is strong enough to be part of the prestigious primetime lineup,” said one network staffer to the Daily Beast, citing her difficulties against CNN and MSNBC even before the election." The new FNC lineup debuts Jan. 18. Read the full release here.
A.J. Kaufman is a regular contributor to KACMEDIA and Alpha News Minnesota