Fox’s cable channel announces programing shuffles, new shows

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Fox Media’s conservative cable channel is making changes to its daytime lineup.

The changes take effect Jan. 18, 2021 and include Martha MacCallum moving “The Story” from its 7 p.m. timeslot to 3 p.m.

This is effectively canceling “Bill Hemmer Reports,” which was known as “Shepard Smith Reporting” for years before Smith exited the network (he’s now at CNBC).

Smith’s block, which was designed to focus on breaking news, was considered by many to be the last vestige of relatively opinion-free programming on the network.

Hemmer, meanwhile, is moving to relaunch “America’s Newsroom” with co-host Dana Perino, who currently hosts “The Daily Briefing” at 2 p.m., which is ending.

Harris Faulkner will no longer host “Outnumbered Overtime” at 1 p.m.

She will move to “The Faulkner Focus” at 11 a.m., cutting “America’s Newsroom” back an hour (it expanded to three hours in 2018).

Meanwhile, “America’s Newsroom” host Sandra Smith will depart the timeslot and be paired with White House correspondent John Roberts for a 1 to 3 p.m. block for “America Reports.”

The 7 p.m. hour vacated by MacCallum will be rebranded with an “interim” program called “Fox News Primetime.”

Fox also announced programming changes around Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, including having MacCallum helm a show titled “The First 100 Days” at 7, focusing, as its name implies, on Trump’s first 100 days in office.

Obviously, a name like that doesn’t age well, so the show would eventually be renamed “The Story.”

Despite its name, “Fox News Primetime” won’t actually air in what is widely considered “primetime” in most markets — on the east coast  7 to 8 p.m. is usually known as “access hour” and filled with syndicated programming selected by local stations.

The central and mountain timezones start primetime at 7 p.m. local time (but that would 6 and 5 p.m. local time, respectively, for when the “Primetime” program is airing live from New York since Fox doesn’t offer a tape delay feed and did not indicate any plans to do so when the schedule takes effect).

Primetime also starts at 8 p.m. local time on the west coast, but “Fox News Primetime” will end up airing at 4 p.m. local time if the feed continues live nationwide.

Fox did not announced any changes to its blockbuster primetime lineup, which relies heavily on conservative opinion hosts.