Good get for Fox. Big loss for CNN.
Fox News Hires Glenn Beck Away From CNN By BILL CARTER and BRIAN STELTER
Published: October 16, 2008
The Fox News Channel brought in a big name from a rival Thursday when it announced that it had signed Glenn Beck, the host of a widely viewed talk show on Headline News, a sister network of CNN.
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TV Decoder: Glenn Beck Leaving CNN for Fox News (October 16, 2008)
Times Topics: Glenn BeckMr. Beck, who has frequently raised hackles in liberal circles with his acerbic conservative commentary, will host a new talk hour on Fox News from 5 to 6 p.m. weeknights. The show will not start until the spring, and a CNN press officer would not say when Mr. Beck would conclude his shows there. His contract ends in February.
Mr. Beck has been increasingly successful at Headline News, as his audience has more than doubled in the last year for the two editions of his hourlong weeknight program.
Mr. Beck appears first at 7 p.m. and then in a repeat at 9 p.m. The 7 p.m. show has been averaging about 375,000 viewers in recent months, and the 9 p.m. repeat exceeds 485,000 viewers.
Both were among the best audience totals for the Headline News Network, topped only by shows hosted by that channel’s signature performer, Nancy Grace.
But a CNN executive, who asked not to be identified because the negotiation was private, said that a sticking point in the talks with Mr. Beck to renew his contract was a plan by Headline News to drop the repeat of Mr. Beck’s show at 9 p.m.
Instead the channel plans to insert a repeat of Lou Dobbs’s 6 p.m. CNN show in that 9 p.m. slot, the CNN executive said. (Mr. Beck’s contract was with CNN, though he worked at Headline News, which is no longer called CNN Headline News.)
Mr. Beck declined to comment.
At Fox News, Mr. Beck will have access to a much wider audience than he reached at Headline News.
A statement from CNN said, “Glenn has been a terrific employee and colleague to many of us at CNN. We wish him well.”
Mr. Beck also has one of the most popular talk radio shows in the country, with more than 6.5 million listeners each week.
The acquisition is a significant one for Fox News, which has been the consistent leader in audience totals in the 7 to 11 p.m. time periods but has not been as strong at 5 p.m.
The network replaced a show hosted by John Gibson in that time period last spring with a show devoted to covering the presidential race.
Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, said in a statement, “Glenn’s thought-provoking commentary will complement an already stellar lineup of stars at Fox News.”
It may also complement the aggravation that Fox stars cause many on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Mr. Beck has often roused protests from the left, and never more so than when he interviewed Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota after he was newly elected as the first Muslim congressman.
Mr. Beck said, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” He added: “I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.” Mr. Beck later said his question had been “poorly worded.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/business/media/17fox.html?ref=media
