The LA Times Joe Flint writes this morning that Lou Dobbs will be joining FBN…
Just about a year to the day that he left CNN, Lou Dobbs is returning to cable news, this time as host of his own show on News Corp.’s Fox Business Network.
DOBBS Fox Business Network is expected to announce that it has signed Dobbs as early as Wednesday afternoon. It’s the latest high-profile hire for the cable network, which launched a little over three years ago and is in 57 million homes. Although that is far fewer homes than its chief rival, CNBC, Fox Business last week managed to beat CNBC on election night, both in viewers and the key adults 25-54 demographic.
Dobbs’ show will premiere in early 2011. He will also appear on other Fox Business programming.
FBN is creating an “all first run” primetime. FBN debuted with a primetime full of mostly re-airings of Cavuto and America’s Nightly Scorecard. Now with Freedom Watch debuting M-Fr next week at 8pm ET and Follow The Money following at 9 (presumably), that just leaves 10pm as a re-run. I expect that will change when Dobbs’ show premieres, though the lineup may switch around as a result.
Update: Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer has an interesting tweet to go with his article on this news…
Fox Business Network is becoming not a biz network, but an overflow network for Fox News-type talent
It’s not quite accurate but it’s sort of going in the right direction. The real story here is how FBN has embraced politics and political themes for its business news. This is something that really started on FNC when it ruined the Saturday Business Block by turning it into the Saturday Politics with a bit of Business Block. But it’s a blueprint which FBN has been following the past year or so with increasing intensity during early prime and primetime. The days of “Main Street, not Wall Street” are over as far as primetime is concerned.
You really can’t separate politics from business since the government has a lot to do with how business functions or doesn’t, but FNC and FBN’s approach to the subject is rather interesting. Rather than take a straight on look at the relationship between the two the networks opt for more of a “talk radio” approach which jettisons rationality in favor of jingoism, rhetoric, and a very low signal to noise ratio as far as getting into the causality of business and government – which would of course be boring TV to everyone except maybe economists.
Ratings are the reason for the hiring of Dobbs, the movement of Freedom Watch to five nights a week, and the existence of Follow the Money. FBN prime is taking a page from its bigger sister and is hoping for similar ratings success. The question is will there be enough viewers to go around between two networks that are trying to corner the same space and cater to the same viewers? Or will one end up cannibalizing the other?
Update 2: I would be remiss if I didn’t add that FBN’s dayside trading hour programs are still solidly business oriented. But primetime, even at FBN’s launch, was less so. And it’s getting lesser all the time.
