Fox News Channel officially launched its 7 p.m. Eastern hour on weeknights with opinion host Jesse Watters, whose star had risen at the network with the ratings success of “The Five,” where he is one of the regular panelists.
Watters is remaining on “The Five,” but has given up his Saturday night show “Watters’ World.”
With his primetime debut Monday, Waters said he was making some major changes to his show — and called the move “cutting edge.”
“My tone is going to be the same,” he said. “My style is going to be the same. I think the difference is going to be more the format because on a weekend show you’re reacting to news of that week. So, you’re doing a lot of summarization, and you’re incorporating all of the elements from the week and the impression that I’ve gotten off that week.”
“Whereas a nightly show, you’re basically… you swing for the fences every single night,” Watters said. “So that’s going to be different. It’s going to be more cutting edge, I’ll put it that way.”
“I’m just going to try to put on a killer show every night and make sure each segment really sings and be creative and really put a lot of juice into it,” he said. “I think the numbers will come as the show gets momentum.”
Fox’s Martha MacCallum used to host a more news-oriented program at 7 p.m., but a year ago the network moved her to daytime when rival Newsmax began getting traction at that hour with host Greg Kelly, although Fox has said the change wasn’t related. For the past year, Fox has rotated a series of guest hosts, including Watters, doing opinion shows at 7 p.m.
“Jesse’s versatility and hosting acumen has grown exponentially over the last five years, and he has developed a deep connection to the audience,” said Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media.
Particularly in the past year, Fox has beefed up its opinion content. Watters will be followed in the evenings by the biggest names in cable news: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.
Watters, 43, started with Fox News in 2002 as a production assistant and quickly gained an on-air role conducting man-on-the-street interviews for then-Fox star Bill O’Reilly. He was elevated to his own weekend show and a role on “The Five” in 2017.
That talk show, with the format of four conservative commentators and one Democrat talking about the news of the day, has surged in popularity, often reaching more viewers than Fox’s prime-time lineup. One panelist, Greg Gutfeld, started his own late-night show on Fox last year, while Dana Perino co-hosts a morning show.
In a popular recurring segment on “The Five,” Watters reads on the air critical texts sent by his liberal mother, including once in 2019 when she wrote, “Please be assured that despite your wretched political orientation I love you forever.”
Waters said his mother’s texts — and those from the audience — will follow. We “wanted to give the audience an opportunity to text me, not just my mom. There is going to be a number that goes out … and the audience can communicate with me because I really want the show to be about the audience,” Watters said.
“My relationship with the audience, and the American people, has been the most formative thing in my career,” he continued. “Whether it’s hate mail, butt-kissing, or just off-the-wall, I’m going to be responding to people.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this article