TV News Review

As the ‘Fox & friends’ World Turns has had an interesting week. Last Friday we all wished bon voyage to the delightful and attractive Alisyn Camerota, host of ‘Fox & friends 1st’ (6am ET) and news headline reader for ‘Fox & friends’ (7-9am ET) as she headed out to start a two week vacation. No hint of what would be happening this week.

Monday we awoke to news on Inside Cable News that ‘Fox & friends 1st’ is history as ‘Fox & friends’ will now be starting at 6am, hosted by Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, and Brian Kilmeade hosting all three hours of the newly expanded show. Additionally we learned that the position of news headline reader was gone and would be handled by F&F host Gretchen Carlson.

“WHAT ABOUT ALISYN???!!!!”  asked the viewers and her fans on her blog, ‘Alisyn In the Greenroom’.

Later in the day TVNewser reported  that Alisyn Camerota was being made the weekend host of F&F.

Still fans have been uneasy and skeptical of this since the change happened once Camerota had gone on vacation. The viewers recalled times before when hosts have gone on vacation to not be seen again (Donna Fiducia, Laurie Dhue, Linda Vester (actually maternity leave in Vester’s case, not vacation, but still never returned, as promised)) only to be later given word that they are no longer at Fox News. Or others that went on vacation to rarely be seen again (Page Hopkins, Brigitte Quinn, Uma Pemmaraju).

I was skeptical too, so I reached out to see what I could find out.

Yesterday I heard from sources close to the happenings at F&F and I can now report that it is a 100%certainty that Alisyn Camerota WILL BE BACK on July 26th, hosting the weekend F&F. She will be joining Clayton Morris and Dave Briggs as the hosts. Ainsley Earhardt will no longer be on the show. Additionally, Camerota will be doing the news headlines also, same as Carlson does on the weekday version. This means Courtney Friel will no longer be on the show performing those duties. (Although this blogger would not be surprised to see Friel coming on the show to report entertainment news.)

(A ‘cut & paste’ look at the future of the weekend show)

Earhardt and Friel will remain with Fox News continuing in their other duties.

My sources tell me that management and Camerota are seeing this move as giving Camerota a higher profile position. The weekend show has more viewers than the weekday 6am show had. Also Camerota will be getting 6 hours of hosting now compared to the previous 5 hours. This is NOT considered a demotion for Camerota nor is she going to disappear, as others have in the past.

Management felt the weekend version needed a host with more experience and ability to handle the hard news and give a greater gravitas to the show. Camerota has proved her ability in this time slot when she hosted the show previously. It is felt that Camerota’s journalistic and hosting experience, plus her quick wit and charm will be the new spark that the weekend show needs to revive it.

This move worked in concert with management’s wish to streamline the weekday show into one 3 hour block to compete directly against CNN’s “American Morning” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, both starting at 6am ET. (This blogger expects that FNC will shortly be trumpting any wins against “American Morning” hosted by Kiran Chetry, a former F&F host that was fired by Fox during contract negotiations that became ugly.)

Sources close to Camerota tell me that she is looking forward to the new (or is it old?) shift of working the weekend show. She will no longer be getting up at 3am everyday, nor going to bed before sunset. Camerota is excited to no longer being “a zombie” as she tried to get by on little sleep. This will allow her more time with her husband and three young children. Which she told the source “you can’t put a price tag on that”.

Camerota is also expected to be acting as a fill in anchor on other weekday shows. She hosted ‘Fox News Watch’ for the July 5th, episode, to positive reviews.

Camerota’s blog will continue but expect less activity during the week, with a flurry of activity on weekends while she is hosting the show.

The future of the ‘After Show Show’ is questionable. For the near future it is expected to continue M-F, but often Doocy has made it clear he does not particularly enjoy it and rushes to end the show. Without Camerota there Carlson won’t have another enthusiastic partner to talk with. (Kilmeade bolts immediately at 9am so to do his radio show.)  There is the possibility that the “After Show Show” will be picked up on weekends.

This change for the weekend F&F show is exactly what this blog had said was needed to save the show. Camerota is an excellent choice to bring in to shore up the show and give it a star that it needs. Camerota already has an established repore with the audience and should be able to give the weekday viewers a reason to give the weekend show another look.

Briggs and Morris have worked with Camerota when they filled in for Kilmeade and Doocy during the week. There was already an ease there between the hosts, which bodes well for the weekend show to have a comfort level right off.

What about the weekday show? This blog is taking a ‘wait and see’ approach.  I am skeptical if Gretchen Carlson has the spark needed to carry the whole three hours with Doocy and Kilmeade. The three can have a tense relationship at times already. I expect we will continue to see the show have a more serious tone with more and more politics as the election season gets into full swing with the approaching conventions and November elections. The show will miss the breath of fun and the break from the three hosts that Camerota brought to the show.

 One Eyed Man