Fox 'Soul' To Air Biden Super Bowl Interview

Fox Corp said on Friday its little-known Fox Soul streaming network would broadcast an interview with U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday for the NFL Super Bowl, reports Reuters.

"After the White House reached out to FOX Soul Thursday evening, there was some initial confusion. FOX Soul looks forward to interviewing the president for Super Bowl Sunday," said a spokesperson for Fox.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier in a tweet that Biden has been looking forward to an interview with Fox Soul.

Fox Soul is a streaming channel that describes itself on its website as "unapologetically Black" and is operated by a subsidiary of Fox Corp.

A presidential interview with the network broadcasting the National Football League championship game has been a staple for years.

Conservative-leaning Fox News has been sharply critical of Biden's presidency and Democrats.

The tradition of granting interviews to the network broadcasting the National Football League championship – which for decades has been the highest-rated single broadcast on American television – dates to George W. Bush’s presidency.

Fox has repeatedly leaned on its opinion hosts to conduct the interviews, with Bill O’Reilly tapped for sit-downs with former President Barack Obama in 2011 and 2014, and with former President Donald Trump in 2017. Sean Hannity interviewed Trump in 2020.

Trump opted against sitting for an interview in 2018, when NBC held the rights to broadcast the game and the president was mired in a controversy over his criticism of NFL players who opted not to stand for the National Anthem to protest police brutality. MSNBC, the cable news offshoot of NBC News, features liberal anchors during its prime-time hours.

Variety.com predicted the audience watching the Fox TV broadcast of the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs could surpass 100 million people.