UPDATED, 4:57 p.m .: As the January 6 Committee holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday, Fox News Channel will keep its prime-time schedule of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. The procedure will be broadcast on the Fox Business network.
The hearing begins at 8pm ET on Thursday, with broadcasters planning to anticipate their usual scheduled programming to cover the proceedings.
Fox News ’Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, meanwhile, will anchor Fox Business coverage, along with Shannon Bream for a two-hour reaction special starting at 11 p.m. ET. Fox News also offers live broadcasts without authentication and channels to Fox affiliates that broadcast coverage.
Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham have attacked the committee’s investigation, and Carlson has advanced a conspiracy theory about its origins with his documentary Patriot Purge.
Bret Baier asked about Tucker Carlson’s January 6 docuserie “Patriot Purge”: “There were definitely concerns.”
Fox News figures have also been the subject of committee work. The committee has been texting since January 6, 2021, which Hannity and Ingraham sent to Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, urging him to get the president to take steps to quell the riots.
Fox News said primetime programs will cover audiences “as justified by the news.”
The channel rarely gets ahead of its prime-time programming, which has dominated competition from rivals MSNBC and CNN. When President Joe Biden gave his first high-profile address to the nation last year about the Covid pandemic, the network put up a box of “Tucker Carlson Live” to show his host’s facial movements. Fox Business, meanwhile, gets a fraction of the audience.
Earlier, 1:18 p.m .: ABC, CBS and NBC have announced plans to cover and hold Thursday’s hearing at the committee’s full hearing on January 6, in which lawmakers are expected to reveal new information about the siege of the United States Capitol.
The hearing is seen as an opportunity for the committee to draw the focus of its investigation, which has so far been conducted largely behind the scenes and through press releases and news about what it has found and who has testified. . The fact that broadcasting channels will enter the regular programming at prime time is an indicator of the importance they are giving to the procedures.
David Muir will present a special report for ABC News, Norah O’Donnell will present for CBS News and Lester Holt for NBC News and NBC News Now.
Cable news networks are also expected to lead the audience.
Fox News has not announced its plans, but the hearing will take place at the same time as it broadcasts two of its top rated programs, Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity, both of which have attacked the committee’s investigation. Carlson produced a Patriot Purge project on January 6, which advanced a conspiracy theory about the attack on the Capitol.
Hannity is one of the Fox News personalities whose names have come out during the committee’s investigation into what happened.
At one of the committee’s public hearings in December, Vice President Liz Cheney (R-WY) read text messages that Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity sent to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. the attack unfolded. Hannity urged Meadows to try to get Trump to “make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol.” Hannity and Ingraham attacked the committee and attacked Cheney for the public publication of the texts.
The committee’s next hearing after Thursday is scheduled for June 13. So far, NBC News says its NBC News Now channel will lead the audience, with Hallie Jackson and Tom Llamas anchored.