The end is near on FOX News for Glenn Beck. No more fake tears induced by Vicks in 2012.
Glenn Beck is pulling the plug on his popular daily show for Fox News.
In a release his production company says he will "transition" away from his Fox News show later this year.
According to the release Beck won't jump ship entirely. He'll develop a variety of programs for Fox News and its digital properties.
Talk of Beck leaving Fox News has been bubbling up for a while now.
Here's the release:
FOX NEWS AND MERCURY RADIO ARTS ANNOUNCE NEW AGREEMENT
(New York, NY) Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production company, are proud to announce that they will work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties. Glenn intends to transition off of his daily program, the third highest rated in all of cable news, later this year. Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of Fox News said, “Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards.I look forward to continuing to work with him. ” Glenn Beck said: “I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News. I cannot repay Roger for the lessons I’ve learned and will continue to learn from him and I look forward to starting this new phase of our partnership.” Joel Cheatwood, SVP/Development at Fox News, will be joining Mercury Radio Arts effective April 24, 2011. Part of his role as EVP will be to manage the partnership and serve as a liaison with the Fox News Channel. Roger Ailes said: “Joel is a good friend and one of the most talented and creative executives in the business. Over the past four years I have consistently valued his input and advice and that will not stop as we work with him in his new role.” “Glenn Beck” is consistently the third highest rated program on cable news. For the 27 months that “Glenn Beck” has aired on Fox News, the program has averaged more than 2.2 million total viewers and 563,000 viewers 25-54 years old, numbers normally associated with shows airing in primetime, not at 5pm. “Glenn Beck” has dominated all of its cable news competitors
Beck accomplished a lot for Republicans because he helped form the Tea Party movement for FOX, but now it's time for slightly more sanity as the election approaches. I've said that FOX can get very good ratings by whoever they decide to use at the 5PM EST hour because of the election so there's no real loss there. John Stossel would happily fill that role. He's got his own kind of crazy going on. Maybe he'll sell his kidney since he's for organ selling. Probably someone from FOX Business since they are a training ground now for their pundits or act as a landing station for those kicked off other networks. But Beck will still be lurking around in some form or another..
UPDATE: David Brock issued this statement from Media Matters:
Washington, DC -- Media Matters for America founder David Brock released the following statement in response to Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts announcing that Glenn Beck will "transition off his daily program" later this year. "After losing more than 300 advertisers and seeing more than 1,000,000 viewers abandon his show the only surprise is that it took Fox News months to reach this decision," said Brock. "Fox News now has to choose: will it eliminate all violent rhetoric from the network - not just during the 5PM hour? And will the network make a commitment to end its role as a political operation masquerading as a news station?"
