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Should FOX Launch A National Newscast In The Style Of The 'FOX Report'?


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FOX has lacked a national newscast for years now, and there are no plans to have one in the future, but with most affiliates already airing local news during the time in which the other networks are airing national news, could FOX add a national news broadcast to their lineup?

 

Here's My Idea:

  • A live 30 Minute version of the "FOX Report w/ Shepard Smith" will be aired at 6:30pm EST (Shep is free since the FR on FNC is at 7pm EST).
  • The style will be the same fast-paced stand-up/sit-down newscast as on FNC, but with more hard news stories.
  • A tape-delayed newscast will be aired for western viewers.
  • Local newscasts will lose only 30 minutes.
  • Graphics will be the same.
  • Ticker and logo cube will be present, but instead of 'channel' on the red bottom portion, '.com' would occupy the space.

I'm not sure how much Shep's contract allows, and how much the affiliates would allow, but I think the idea could work. Shep is a very unbiased anchor and would fit perfectly on a national broadcast.

 

Opinions?

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As the Fox affiliates actually try to distant themselves from FNC and seeing as how Fox doesn't actually do too well when there's a special report being aired on all four broadcast nets at once, I can't help but feel it wouldn't do too well.

 

However though, if you gave it some time, it probably wouldn't be too bad, managing to steal viewers from the other 3 (obviously).

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They tried that (See Dayside). It didn't work out. Although, with the right people, like hard anchors that are likable, they could succeed.

Could Good Day Live be considered an effort by FOX to establish a morning show?

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They tried that (See Dayside). It didn't work out. Although, with the right people, like hard anchors that are likable, they could succeed.

And let's not forget about "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet".

 

Never mind, let's forget about that. :ack:

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And don't forget in 1996 when they moved FX's "Breakfast Live" to the 9am hour, renaming it "Fox After Breakfast" and going through a revolving door of hosts (including Vicki Laurence!) before they mercifully pulled the plug.

 

Could Good Day Live be considered an effort by FOX to establish a morning show?

Then-O&O WJW aired Good Day Live at 1pm eastern (which would make sense considering it originated in LA) following the noon news. But it and "Mike & Juiliet" The Spaghetti Cat Show were distributed by 20th Television, not on the Fox network itself.
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The relationship between FOX Broadcast and FOX News Channel is an interesting one. It's not like NBC and MSNBC where they are separate, yet there's crossover. With both FOX channels, there isn't any crossover since 1) there is no news department at FOX Broadcast, and 2) only specially produced reports from FNC air on FOX Broadcast. Simulcasting is a rarity.

 

I think currently the only regular show shared between the networks is FOX News Sunday, which I'm sure affiliates gladly take to help fill their weekend schedule. While technically a FOX Broadcast show (because of it's origin and broadcast schedule), it's pretty much an FNC show.

 

Would affiliates benefit from and want more content produced by FNC? And would FNC benefit? I don't know. I'm thinking a lot of FOX stations would want to keep their local news in place.

 

If they did did start out with FNC producing content for FOX Broadcast and it was successful, maybe a separate news department would develop at FOX Broadcast network. Then we'd have a situation similar to NBC and MSNBC. But actually I don't really see it going that far. If FOX broadcast wanted to significantly expand it's own news offerings, I see it mostly being produced out of FNC, but with some expanded, dedicated staff and talent just for the FOX Broadcast shows.

 

As for your FOX Report suggestion, I kinda like it in theory but I think something else would need to be done because of the reason in the paragraph below. I'm not sure what that would be though. This kinda makes me think that if FOX really wanted to do this, maybe ending up with a separate news department at FOX broadcast would be best. That way the content/shows would be fresh/different from FNC. But idk...

 

Personally for me, since I watch FOX Report already at 4pm Pacific, any 30 min FOX Report that's on FOX Broadcast wouldn't normally interest me unless I change my viewing habits. Because actually, the tape delayed broadcast would be "old" news since it was actually broadcasted right before the FOX report on FNC which I watch at 4. (This is why the other network news shows don't interest me because by the time they air on the west coast, they're old. A live cable newscast at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern is actually fresher than any broadcast network show.) This effect obviously doesn't happen to east coast viewers.

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FOX has lacked a national newscast for years now, and there are no plans to have one in the future, but with most affiliates already airing local news during the time in which the other networks are airing national news, could FOX add a national news broadcast to their lineup?

 

Here's My Idea:

  • A live 30 Minute version of the "FOX Report w/ Shepard Smith" will be aired at 6:30pm EST (Shep is free since the FR on FNC is at 7pm EST).
  • The style will be the same fast-paced stand-up/sit-down newscast as on FNC, but with more hard news stories.
  • A tape-delayed newscast will be aired for western viewers.
  • Local newscasts will lose only 30 minutes.
  • Graphics will be the same.
  • Ticker and logo cube will be present, but instead of 'channel' on the red bottom portion, '.com' would occupy the space.

I'm not sure how much Shep's contract allows, and how much the affiliates would allow, but I think the idea could work. Shep is a very unbiased anchor and would fit perfectly on a national broadcast.

 

Opinions?

There would be several logistical problems with this setup. Namely the fact they'd be unable to update the west coast network show because they'd be in an hour long FNC show immediately after the east coast network program ended.

 

The time to do this has come and gone. It's 2013. Launching a 30 minute network news program while angering any affiliate that has a news department is probably fairly low on FOX's to-do list. Additionally, I'm willing to say FOX doesn't really care all that much about getting network news programming on their affiliates. Special reports on FOX Broadcast are already a disaster, and occasionally I find WITI simulcasting FOX News Channel during breaking news because the network doesn't provide a proper break-in.

 

Also I swear this is like the 3000th time there's been a thread about this.

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The only thing is it seems to me that the lack of a national newscast is the reason why quite a few Fox stations that do have news departments aren't motiviated to carry an early evening newscast to begin with (that is assuming that if Fox ran a national news program, it would air at the same timeslot that NBC, ABC and CBS run theirs). My local affiliate, KOKH, runs Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory instead of local newscasts from 5-6-30 p.m., contrast that to KOKI upstate in Tulsa, which has an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast. Fox itself doesn't seem to push its stations that aren't owned by the network to run early evening newscasts (or a much fuller slate of local newscasts comparable to the "Big Three", which is why a lot of Fox stations only run a 10/9 p.m. newscast or if they're run under a duopoly/SSA/LMA, a two-hour morning newscast instead of a 4-6 hour one), a national newscast might give that needed motivation, barring that the network makes running more news a requirement than a suggestion - which doesn't seem as if it will happen any time soon.

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