Fox News’ prime-time shakeup is no shakeup at all

Fox News finally got around to replacing Tucker Carlson.

Meet the new guy. Same as the old guy. Except maybe not quite as adept in his just-as-dangerous talking points.

Jesse Watters will replace Carlson in a revamped Fox News prime-time lineup.

Laura Ingraham will shift from 10 p.m. Eastern to 7 p.m. Watters follows at 8 p.m., which is where Carlson’s show was before he was fired in April.

Sean Hannity keeps his 9 p.m. slot and Greg Gutfeld’s late-night-type show moves from up an hour from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. The new lineup starts July 17.

So, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. — the most valuable real estate on TV known as prime time — Fox News will have three white male hosts.

Former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter tweeted, “If any other network went with an all-white-guy prime time lineup, there would be criticism.”

And there would be here too if it wasn’t, well, you know, Fox News, which is where it is expected.

The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies and Justin Baragona wrote that sources inside Fox told them moving Watters into prime time was the “safe” move. I take that to mean Fox News viewers will be OK with it.

As The New York Times Jeremy W. Peters wrote, “Though some of the names and times of Fox’s most important shows are changing, the overall tone of the coverage is not likely to sound much different to the audience.”

Watters fits right in with Fox News’ prime-time philosophy of bashing liberals.

Peters wrote, “Mr. Watters is a reliably pro-Trump conservative voice who first became widely known to Fox’s audience for his cameos on Bill O’Reilly’s program before the network canceled that show in 2017. His commentary has come under criticism at times, including when he did a segment from Manhattan’s Chinatown in 2016 in which he asked Asian people offensive questions, including whether they knew Karate or bowed when saying hello.”

The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr wrote, “During a period of soft ratings for the network, Watters has been a success as host of the 7 p.m. hour, which the network had once reserved for news coverage. But he has also been a magnet for criticism. At a conservative political conference in December 2021, Watters encouraged an audience of young conservatives to ‘ambush’ infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci and to finish him off with a rhetorical ‘kill shot’ of pointed questions. Fauci called for Fox to fire Watters, but the network issued a statement defending him and promoted him a few weeks later.”

Those are just a couple of examples of Watters’ on-air commentary that crossed the line. Media Matters of America put together a rather lengthy list of what it called “despicable commentary” over the years.

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said in a statement, “After Fox News fired Tucker Carlson, Lachlan Murdoch said there would be ‘no change’ in the network’s programming strategy. Today, Fox is making good on that promise. Crowning odious Jesse Watters as the new face of Fox News is a reflection of Fox’s dogged commitment to bigotry and deceit as well as an indication of their desperation to regain audience share. It won’t work, though. Fox’s audience abandoned the network post-Tucker, and those viewers never returned. Jesse Watters’ buffoonish segments of bigotry and culture war vitriol won’t fix that problem for Fox; he’s a liability and a ticking time bomb.”

Ratings for Fox News are down since Carlson was fired. Viewership during Carlson’s old 8 p.m. slot has dropped in half, to about 1.5 million viewers. And, of course, there was the public relations disaster of having to write a $787.5 million check after being sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems.

But overall, throughout the day, Fox News still leads cable news in viewership.

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A couple other tidbits from the Fox News news

• It would be hard to believe Ingraham is happy with the move out of prime time from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies and Justin Baragona wrote sources at the network said as much. They wrote, “At the same time, they suggested that Ingraham — who has been in primetime since 2017 — would likely be (peeved) about the move, especially since she now has Bret Baier’s ‘hard news’ program Special Report as her lead-in rather than getting the handoff from her pal Hannity’s Trump-boosting talk show.”
• Several outlets, including The Washington Post and reporter Sarah Ellison, are reporting, without confirmation from Fox News, that the eight remaining employees from Tucker Carlson’s old show are having their jobs eliminated and will receive “enhanced” severance if they stay through July 14.

Remembering a legendary TV newsman

David Bohrman, a longtime CNN producer and a TV news innovator, has died from complications following hip surgery. He was 69.

In a statement, CNN said, “David was a CNN institution, a leader and innovator who mentored many through decades in television news.”

If you are a TV news viewer, even a casual one, you know of Bohrman’s work. He pioneered the magic wall — the giant touchscreen that has become a staple of election coverage.

CNN Washington bureau chief Sam Feist told CNN's Juliana Liu that Bohrman was "one of the most innovative television news producers in history.”

CNN anchor John King, who has spent much of his career standing in front of that magic wall, told Liu, “David was a risk taker who every day wanted to find a better way to tell or show the story. His decision to take the then just emerging touch-screen technology and integrate (it) into our 2008 election coverage was nothing short of revolutionary.”

But Bohrman was way more than his implementation of the magic wall. He was the executive producer during CNN’s live coverage on Sept. 11, 2001, and produced many of the network’s presidential debates.

Before that, Borhman worked at ABC News and created “World News Now” — the network’s overnight newscast that is still on the air 30 years after it debuted.

In recent years, Bohrman was a consultant, helping both NBC in 2016 and then CBS in 2020 with their election coverage.

CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky, who was president of the network’s news division in 2020, tweeted, “He brought our presidential election coverage to a place we'd never been. He challenged & inspired us. We were reborn.”

Another dustup

Monday’s White House press briefing featured another dustup between White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Today News Africa correspondent Simon Ateba. The two often tangle, including in a major back-and-forth back in March that had other reporters criticizing Ateba during a contentious press conference. Ateba often complains that he is not called upon, while many, including other White House reporters, see Ateba as being disrespectful and disruptive.

On Monday, Jean-Pierre talked about the harassment Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui received because of questions she asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India's human rights record when he was at the White House last week. (The Wall Street Journal has more on that.)

While touting America’s freedom of the press, Jean-Pierre was interrupted by Ateba, who said he has been discriminated against for the past nine months by Jean-Pierre.

Another reporter jumped in to say, “How is she discriminating against you?”

As Ateba started listing his complaints and arguing with the other reporter, a visibly frustrated Jean-Pierre said, “If this continues, we’re going to end the press briefing. If this continues … you’re being incredibly rude. You’re being incredibly rude. … You’re talking over your colleague.”

Mediaite’s Ken Meyer has the clip.

Media tidbits

• The always-entertaining Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay with “Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk Aren’t Going to Fight. Wait, Are They Going to Fight?”
• ESPN recently made some significant leadership changes. In his latest sports media podcast, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch talks with the author of a book about ESPN, James Andrew Miller, about those changes.
• Speaking of ESPN, Front Office Sports’ A.J. Perez with “ESPN Offers Sage Steele $501K to Settle Lawsuit.”
• The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi with “A new ‘golden age’ for lawyers who are good at talking on TV.”
• Washington Post sports media columnist Ben Strauss with “FanDuel makes betting lines. FanDuel’s Shams Charania moves them.”

Hot type

• For The New York Times, Jessica Testa with “Jenna Lyons, Unlikely Housewife.”
• A few days old, but well worth your time. The Ringer’s Dan Moore with “The Long, Sad Story of the Stealing of the Oakland A’s.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].