The 7 pm schedule, anchored by Martha MacCallum and called “The Story”, will become “Fox News Primetime” and will be led by a “rotating” cast of opinion presenters, a Fox spokesman said on Monday. in the morning.
MacCallum will move to 3 pm next Monday, Fox said. The move will certainly be seen as a downgrade, since 7 pm is a much more prominent position.
Several Fox sources have described Fox’s audience as “pissed” and “furious” at the loss of Trump and Fox’s coverage, which has been tilted to the right, but evidently not far enough for Trump loyalists.
MacCallum, who co-anchored Fox electoral coverage with 6 pm anchor Bret Baier, is one of the targets of the post-election fury at Trump’s base, as a quick glance at his footprint on social media proves. Responses to your posts on Twitter and Instagram pages are often full of venom about being insufficiently pro-Trump.
This is surprising, to some extent, since MacCallum’s 7pm show clearly leans towards the conservative in its guest bookings and topic selections. But Fox still considers it a news program, not an hour of complete opinion like “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle” at the end of the night. Therefore, the decision to install a 7 opinion host is revealing Fox’s direction.
Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of Fox Corporation, was directly involved in decision-making, according to two knowledgeable sources.
Fox officials said on Monday that the move was an admission that Fox has encountered recent competition across the world from right-wing media, from Newsmax and other vehicles such as One America News.
An official gave a direct interpretation of the moves: “Newsmax won”.
Newsmax has a much smaller audience than Fox at any time of the day, but its sudden increase in audience in November caused great consternation within Fox.
Shortly after the announcement of the change in Fox’s programming, Newsmax issued a statement that began: “Fox is running away. The rise of Newsmax TV caused a major change in Fox News.”
7:00 pm Newsmax host Greg Kelly gave in to Trump’s lies about the election for months. He promoted conspiracy theories and insisted that Trump could still serve a second term, giving his viewers false hopes for the future.
Not coincidentally, he has been the top rated presenter on the channel.
The move from MacCallum to 3 pm on Fox has several cascading effects. Bill Hemmer, who only recently received the 3 pm time after years of co-anchoring in the mornings, is now returning for the mornings: He will be from 9 am to 11 am next to Dana Perino, who is also missing his solo time at 2 pm
Instead of anchoring a solo hour at 1 pm, Harris Faulkner will anchor at 11 am, leading to the “Outnumbered” talk show she runs.
From 1 pm to 3 pm, Sandra Smith will be the joint anchor with John Roberts, who is leaving his post of chief correspondent in the White House for an anchor position.
The scramble was first reported by Variety on Monday morning.
Two sources said more changes are expected in the line in the coming weeks.