Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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Fox News Offers Another Conservative Info-tainy Show
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
12:02 PM
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Info-tainment. Isn't that a term these days?
A "Daily Show" for non-liberals on Fox News is set to debut this Feb. 18 (not that "The Daily Show" is left-leaning. Ohh, Heavens no). The "Half-Hour News Hour" is the brainchild of "24" co-creator Joel Surnow.
Someone at Libertas got to see a taping of the show:
The two stars, Kurt Long and Susan Yeagley, displayed none of Jon Stewart’s smug self-satisfied mugging or Colbert’s tiresome ironic self-awareness. Instead, they’re both charming performers with a strong chemistry who blend seriousness and absurdity in the same way SNL did in the heyday of it’s Weekend Update series.
I’m not going to review the show here. It was shot out of order and the few dud jokes will hopefully be edited out, and how it will all come together is anyone’s guess. But as a series of sketches, most were laugh-out-loud funny and brutally clever skewering environmentalism, political correctness, the ACLU, and many other liberal sacred cows.
It’s nice to finally have a powerful, outspoken producer on our side. I’m encouraged by what I saw Saturday and think Surnow understands there’s an audience out there largely ignored and ready to become a cash cow with more smart programming.
This looks like it might be the Kurt Long we're talkin' about, and here's his IMDB page. And, here's Susan Yeagley who hails from Nashville, Tenn. Like the sound of that.
More about both "Red Eye" and "Half-Hour News Hour" via Variety, which reports the News Hour has is slotted right now for two pilots, so get to watching, folks, if you're interested in something like this. I'm DVRing both.
And, finally, while I was searching, I found some changes in the Fox News line-up, which will totally throw off the daily routines of people like me, who spend all day watching TV News. Messes with my equilibrium when you give me my Bill Hemmer so early in the morning, and put him next to Megyn Kendall. Well-played, Kendall. Well-played, but I'll get my shot.
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Please lose the laugh track. It doesn't help -- honest. I'm willing to give the show a shot, but sink or swim with an audience. The canned laughter is just annoying. |
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Maybe I watched the wrong clip? |
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Just an update for you, since there are some errors in your article. First, Susan Yeagley was the first choice for the show, but had to back out for personal reasons and was replaced by the very talented, Jenn Robertson. She is the one who appears in the two pilots that will air. Second, we're not claiming to be the Conservative version of the Daily show. It's an easy description for people when describing the show. We don't want to be Jon Stewart or Colbert. They are very talented, but we're looking for our own identity. We just want to fill a void in a TV landscape that seems to cater (comedically, at least) only to the Left. We're not trying to be meanspirited, we're just trying to be funny. Comments that claim we are misguided and mean only go to prove that the Left can dish it out, but can't seem to take a joke. That's all it is folks, Jokes. I think if you give each 30 minute program a chance you'll see that. Enjoy
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I thought the show's clips were hilarious! A politically incorrect comedy site called ourcountry.com is trying to do the same thing. You should check them out too. |
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..the reason "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are popular, is because these shows make fun the absurdity and the hypocrisy of people and organizations in power - like politicians and the corporate media.
Making fun of environmentalism and the ACLU just isn't funny, but actually rather mean and misguided. These are things that actually try to do some good in the our world. We're all environmentalists whether we want to admit it or not. After all, you wouldn't dump hazardous chemicals in your own backyard, or let your children eat poisonous food would you? So why would we allow that to happen in someone else's backyard? And we all need our civil liberties defended from the abuses of the powerful, do we not?
How absurd is it that Fox news will air a comedy show? And one that pretends to be a Daily Show for conservatives? I wonder, will that show point out the absurdity and hypocrisy of the Fox news channel? Our government?
Doubt it. |
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I wondered why my fearmongering comment worked you up so much you had to write three consecutive ranting comments.
So I looked at your blog, and read all about how "[t]he next attack on American soil will be a nuclear attack."
I swear, you can't make this stuff up! |
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Killer bees were going to be the end of civilization, watching too much TV, too much time spent in front of the PC.
Certainly, other people out there can add their own suggestions to this.
Those of us who still watch the evening news are told on a nightly basis what may kill us every day, but just like in the '30s when FDR was running the show and in the '90s when Clinton ran the show, no one DARED to explain to us the threat we were doomed to encounter from fascists outside the country. |
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that came to light to my tiny brain after pressing the "Post Your Comments" button below:
Aids it going to kill all of us. Skin cancer is going to kill everyone. Drinking tap water is going to kill you. We are all going to die of thirst in a matter of years.
You buying any of this? You need to be careful whom you tag with fear-monger, my friend. |
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Isn't it the liberals who are telling us always that the world is going to end tomorrow? Ozone layer in the '70s, global cooling in the '70s, animal species' extinction for the last 40 years.
Oh! The Weather Channel is telling us EVERY weekend that a tsunami is going to be drowning those of us who live on the coasts. The History Channel likes to have another weekend show that tells us that we are going to die from an asteroid/meteor impact.
Neither of these channels is a noted supporter of conservative thought.
It is not we conservatives who are trying to scare anyone! Look into the mirror first, Soothsayer. |
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That clip was painful . . . even worse than I had expected.
Conservatives should stick with what they do best: preying on the fears of elderly shut-ins and the mentally weak. |
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Two words: Paul Shanklin.
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I can't wait. I don't watch Stewart or Colbert.
Elisabeth: Saying the show is doomed is wishful thinking on your part.
Stromsdaughter: "Conservatives are so jealous of liberals..." Now that's funny! You can actually make a joke! |
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Conservatives are so jealous of liberals that they have to copy everything that they do. They wish Hollywood loved them. |
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Wait, Wait...Are you saying Fox News isn't a parody? Oh...I'm disappointed now. |
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... is an oxymoron. Should be fun to laugh at (not with) this show. |
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FYI, Megyn recently got a divorce and has taken back her maiden name, Kelly. |
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Comedy news seems to be the up and coming thing. I'm getting used to it. I've always been sort of serious about things like nuclear war or communism. My kids seem to understand it better from the South Park version. So, as I learn to read the blogs and comment sections on the web, I, too am becoming accustomed to laughing hilariously at ridiculous things like Mr. Dinner Jacket and his nukes. I can now raise my voice to my liberal brother and call Al Gore a fine science fiction writer. I think this is a good thing. |
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You wrote, "which will totally throw off the daily routines of people like me,"
My edit would have read, "which will totally throw off the daily routines of people like I am,"
We ALL like you, MKH! You needn't state it over-and-over again. ;-) |
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You wrote, "in the heyday of it’s Weekend Update series."
My edit would have read, "in the heyday of its Weekend Update series."
It's = it is.
Its = belongs to it. |
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Good. Maybe we'll here a teensie bit less whining from the conservatives. Good grief, whining about bias has become a full time occupation for some. |
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Anything will be better than Colbert’s little minstrel show. I'd rather watch TV test patterns than watch left-wing Colbert straining to look stupid in comedy-conservative-face. The bar for these programs is not high.
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