Fox News has lined up six rotating hosts for its new 7 p.m. opinion program aimed at feeding the appetite of conservative viewers in the hour, reports The L-A Times.
The new show called “Fox News Primetime” launched Monday night with “Fox & Friends” morning show co-host Brian Kilmeade, as previously announced. The Times has learned that other names lined up to helm the program are “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo and regular contributors to the network Katie Pavlich, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Mark Steyn and former congressman Trey Gowdy.
A Fox News representative confirmed the upcoming hosts.
Fox News is moving “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” which has aired in the 7 p.m. hour since 2017, to 3 p.m. to make way for an opinion show that will be a more compatible lead-in for its conservative hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. MacCallum’s program, which featured newsmaker interviews, was the time period ratings leader in 2020, but slipped to third behind CNN and MSNBC in recent weeks.
Fox News had its largest audience levels in its history in 2020, leading all of cable TV according to Nielsen. But the conservative-leaning network has fallen behind CNN and MSNBC since election day, as more viewers have tuned in to those networks to follow the transition of the new Democratic administration and the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol led by pro-Trump rioters.
Fox News is also seeing some of its viewers sample upstart right-wing TV outlet Newsmax. While the Newsmax audience is a fraction of what Fox News draws, the network does see a pronounced audience lift at 7 p.m. Eastern for its host Greg Kelly, who remains a rabid Trump defender even after the Capitol riots.
A Fox News representative had previously stated the program changes were under discussion since the early fall and are not a response to the recent ratings trends.
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