LEAD STORY
Lou Dobbs Out At Fox Business
Lou Dobbs, one of cable news’ well-known personalities, is no longer with Fox Business. Dobbs, who anchored Lou Dobbs Tonight, was unceremoniously shown the exit door late Friday evening.
What added to the sting was that Dobbs was not even on the air for his final show. He was off on Friday and David Asman, a fellow Fox Business anchor, was filling in for him on that day. The unexpectedness of his dismissal was even more pronounced when Asman at the end of the show said that “Lou will be back on Monday.”
Minutes later the Los Angeles Times broke the news that Dobbs was gone from the network.
No official reason was given for his departure although Fox News Media did issue a statement saying that programming changes are considered regularly and that “plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business — this is part of those planned changes.”
What was being alluded to was that the move was planned prior to Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit, which was leveled against Fox News Media, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo.
The Smartmatic lawsuit, which dropped this past Thursday, accused the media organization and its hosts of launching a “disinformation campaign” against the company and how its voting machines were used during the just concluded elections.
Dobbs used his show to openly express loyalty to Donald Trump and used his platform to aggressively go against those who stood in the way of Trump. This stance made his show a happy place where misinformation and falsehoods comfortably co-existed.
The high price tag of the lawsuit coupled with stories of tension with management, the lack of premium advertisers on his show, and a not so high audience of 300,000 daily viewers meant that Fox News could do without Lou Dobbs.
The fates of Pirro and Bartiromo have not yet been decided.
Dobbs has had a long career in cable news— he gained prominence as a business anchor while at CNN where he hosted the popular show MoneyLine. He was seen as a credible and reliable force within the business community.
But, his radical shift and extreme viewpoints made for an uncomfortable existence at CNN and he left the news network for good heading to Fox Business in 2011.
In the meantime, his show will be rebranded as Fox Business Tonight and starting this Monday will be anchored by Asman and Jackie DeAngelis.
(NBC News, CNN, Los Angeles Times, TVNewsCheck, The Guardian)
RECAP
New Weekend Anchors For ABC News’ World News Tonight
ABC News has named Whit Johnson and Linsey Davis as anchors of the weekend editions of World News Tonight. This comes after Tony Llamas defected to NBC News last week. Johnson, who will still be part of the weekend edition of Good Morning America, will anchor World News Tonight on Saturdays, and Davis, who is on ABC News’ streaming service ABC News Live, will be anchoring on Sundays. (ABC News Public Relations)
Former Fox News Exec Bill Shine Shows Up At NewsNation
NewsNation, which just switched its identity from WGN America and will be increasing the amount of live news by two hours in March, has hired former Fox News executive Bill Shine as a consultant. This move seems rather odd considering the network has vowed to be an unbiased news operation and yet it brought in someone who was instrumental in creating as well as being in charge of right-wing programming at Fox News and for a brief period was also part of Trump’s White House team. It will be interesting to see if NewsNation sticks to its claim as an unbiased network with Shine around. (TVNewser)
Jeff Zucker To Remain At CNN Till End Of 2021
The biggest news coming out of CNN this week was that its president, Jeff Zucker, has decided to remain with the network until the end of the year. Zucker, who had made it known that he was not happy with some of the managerial moves WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar had made, indicated that he still loved what he was doing and wanted to remain with the network until the end of the year when his contract runs out. CNN has been on a roll in the ratings space since the election and many thought that Zucker would take advantage of that and leave while things were still looking good for the network. Staffers can now look forward to having their skipper for a little bit longer. (Variety)
QUICK RECAP
January 2021 Ratings: Fox News finishes in 3rd place — breaks streak that was in place since 2001. (TVNewser )
January 2021 Ratings: CNN finishes on top for the first time since 2001. (CNN Press Room)
January 2021 Ratings: MSNBC finishes a strong second. (NBCUniversal Media Village)
Senior vice president of communications Errol Cockfield leaves MSNBC. (Errol Cockfield/Twitter)
With the Super Bowl having fewer people at the stadium, it has allowed CBS Sports space for more experimentation with camera positions and AR graphics. (TVNewsCheck)
Roger Ailes’ accuser, Laurie Luhn, is saying she is being harassed by Fox News lawyers. (The Daily Beast)
NBCUniversal’s Peacock and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max have an uphill climb in trying to keep up with Netflix. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Henry Gomes joins NBC News Digital as a national political reporter. (TVNewser)
Profile: ABC’s Linsey Davis is making things happen between TV and streaming news. (Variety)
Rashida Jones restructures some MSNBC departments. (Jeremy Barr/Twitter)
A rare win for CBS This Morning Saturday as it beats NBC News’ Today Show Saturday on Jan 25th. (TVNewser/Twitter)
Liz Johnstone to lead NBC News’ digital politics team. (Claire Atkinson/Twitter)
Fox News hires Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech as a contributor. (Alex Weprin/Twitter)
Netflix leads with 42 Golden Globe nominations. (Axios)
ViacomCBS is dealing with racism and mistreatment issues at its CBS station in New York. (Los Angeles Times)
Anderson Cooper, Savannah Guthrie, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta to guest host on Jeopardy. (Jeopardy/Twitter)
Nora Ali departs the business news channel Cheddar. (Talking Biz News)
CBS This Morning had its best week since the election. (ViacomCBS Press Express)
Is Fox News’ ratings fall as a result of self-inflicted wounds? (The Daily Beast)
ViacomCBS uses the Super Bowl to market Paramount Plus. (AdWeek)
Colin Cowherd is launching his own podcast deals. (Front Office Sports)
UK’s Channel 4 wins rights to England’s test cricket tour with India. (The Guardian)
Is CNN’s ratings victory short-lived? (Variety)
CBS Sports resigns Ian Eagle to a long-term deal. (New York Post)
CBS News mourns the passing of former Middle East correspondent Mitchell Krauss. (TVNewser)
CNN’s John King wins a UK award. (The Guardian)
Profile: NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell believes she has the best job in the world. ()
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