Drudge is reporting, based on anonymous "top sources," that Megyn Kelly will take Fox News' 9 PM ET slot when she returns from maternity leave. So what will happen to Sean Hannity, whose Hannity show currently airs at that time? We don't know yet. But there's one thing his fans can probably count on. UPDATED.
The race baiting and Republican cheerleading Fox viewers have come to expect during that time slot will almost certainly continue with Megyn Kelly at the helm, but with blonder hair and leggier legs.
Actually, there's something else Hannity viewers can count on: he won't be leaving Fox. He and Bill O'Reilly recently signed multi-year, mulitimillion-dollar contracts. And Greta Van Susteren says her contract keeps her in prime time.
So who will leave prime time? Or will Kelly co-host with Hannity? And will this shake-up help draw younger viewers to Fox's off-the-ratings-chart geriatric audience? Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Roger Ailes told Neil Cavuto today, "All of our stars will be back" and hinted that Shepard Smith will be part of the shakeup.
The more I think of it, the more I like my solution to the 4 hosts promised primetime problem. Hannity is the only one of the three current hosts who’s actually a pretty skilled professional broadcaster and would be able to work comfortably with a co-host, especially one who’s as right-wing as he is, or more. Greta’s done well, but she’s not a pro. Pairing her up with somebody else would be a disaster. O’Reilly’s a one-man band, period. I doubt anybody, even Ailes, would so much as have the nerve to suggest such a thing to him.
But Hannity’s actually got a pretty good-natured style, despite his ugly politics, and plays very well with his righty guests, bantering and agreeing and exchanging thought fragments quite comfortably.
I wonder if she’ll still do those… If not, I might actually miss her poorly disguised “I hate minorities, and wish I was a man!” rants, disguised as her pretending she’s a judge.
But I harp on Greta because I find her kind of comparatively mild-mannered but utterly relentless propaganda far more insidious than the obviously clown show Hannity puts on. And in fact, both Hannity and Kelly regularly have liberal/Dem. guests, even if they do shout at them. Greta does not. Chris Van Hollen shows up about once every two months, but that’s the extent of her contribution to “fair and balanced.”
She did some Zimmerman and some Ariel Castro, but far less than most other shows. She did almost no Casey Anthony. That was Nancy Grace on Headline News.
Greta goes on and on and on night after night shrieking and raving about the IRS and Benghazi! with the likes of Donald Trump, Pat Buchanan, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Trey Gowdy, Jim Jordan, endless, endless numbers of Tea Party directors, and other relentless right-wingers. Now she’s digging up former GOPer members of the FEC to pronounce ominously about gummint bias against conservatives.
She has a firm contract recently signed for primetime and extremely good ratings, so it seems to me she’s unlikely in the extreme to get bumped into pre-primetime, but we’ll see. It’s possible her increasing numerous bouts of semi-incoherent ranting are because she’s worried about that possibility herself. But if so, that means it’s nowhere near settled at Fox yet.
My own guess is they’re going to pair Megyn with Hannity at 9:00. They’d make the Klingon couple on top of the wedding cake. Hannity needs a refresher of some kind, and pairing him with Kelly would send the ratings in that timeslot into the Fox stratosphere. But that’s just a guess because it’s what I would do if I were Ailes.
Jane S, I think I overstated. Greta does plenty of GOP pep rally stuff, but she still does any crime blotter or tabloid news material she can. When the Carnival Cruise mess happened, Greta (and many other Fox News people) dedicated her whole show the night the ship came to port. She’s also devoted multiple full shows to the Ariel Castro and Casey Anthony criminal matters. And yes, she was covering Zimmerman – both as a pep rally for him and as a crime blotter. I guess that one was a 2-fer for her.
I totally agree her “Government Gone Wild” routine is ridiculous – strange that she didn’t complain like this when Bush was in office. And I’d agree that her regular obsequious interviews with Darrell Issa have been more than annoying.
All that said, I still think she’s the likeliest person to move completely out of her timeslot and be thrown to a much earlier airtime. They won’t touch O’Reilly and a move earlier for Hannity would likely be a conflict with his radio work. Unless they’re planning on pairing two of the hosts – which you’d think they would have announced.
Moderator’s note: Leaving this comment so we have record as to why this commenter was banned.
Otherwise, she’s all GOP-TV all the time, these days mostly on the IRS, the FEC, with diversions into Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! Oh, and there’s also her regular “government gone wild” segments highlighting things like IRS conference videos and GSA misdeed.
If they start their primetime with the 7pm hour, then they’ll do this:
7pm Greta van Susteren (given that she has the lowest ratings of the bunch and usually is focusing on crime blotter stories anyway)
8pm Bill O’Reilly (they won’t move his show, since his ratings are still good and he’ll explode if they make him change his time)
9pm Megyn Kelly’s show (spotlighting her as the new one on the block)
10pm Hannity (acknowledging that his ratings have dipped, and still giving him room to do his radio show as well) Knowing Hannity, he’ll likely pretape most of the show anyway.
My comment was directed at those whose comments were nothing more than smarmy name-calling. They have responded with… smarmy name-calling.
Gee, what a surprise.
Adios. I shall turn off monitoring of this site. So have at it… you’re free to spew more venom in my direction because it’ll never reach me and only be enjoyed by the kind of person who has nothing of substance to offer.
Broadcast network evening programming doesn’t, or didn’t— don’t know what it is now— start until 8. The nets provide their half-hour evening news broadcasts for local affiliates to run at either 6 or 6;30, but from then until 8, the time is the local station’s to program with locally-produced or syndicated shows.
Personally, I think “primetime” should start at 7, but those silly TV people don’t pay any attention to what I think. :-(
Nielsen measures viewership, I think, all day. And sites like TVNewser track from late afternoon because that’s when “serious” news generally gets started, or at least has a large enough viewership to be worth tracking.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/the-scoreboard-wednesday-august-7_b191454
I stick with what I said below about why I think Shep’s the one going to clear a path so Hannity can stay at a less desirable, yet still prime time slot.
Aging Hannocchio the RINO is moving to another primetime slot. Placing him in the afternoon conflicts with his national radio show.
Hannocchio is not going anywhere for now. As he ages, his time on Fox “News” grows shorter. He and others will eventually be replaced by younger hosts.
Regarding the update that Shep Smith may be the one moving out of primetime, this is another thing about that block that I’m only surprised didn’t happen when they broke out with “The Five.” Shep’s the closest thing Fox has to it’s tagline (yes, I am including the newsblock), and even with no smoking gun, there’s a real sense of that Ailes was showing a strained tolerance for him more than anything else.
Or maybe Shep’s hothead antics crossed the final line. Will we be hearing about a new rage-induced folly when the change-up is bigger news?
Teaming him up with another conservative like Gretchen Carlson for her new show would put a pot of coffee to sleep if that’s what they intend to do.
Meanwhile, James Rosen, Fox “News” Chief Washington Correspondent, has a mad:
“James Rosen Responds To Me, Sort Of”
http://notnowsilly.blogspot.com/2013/08/james-rosen-responds-to-me-sort-of.html
With all my love,
The writer formerly known as Aunty Em Ericann