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Donna Brazile Leaves Fox News to Join ABC News

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Donna Brazile is gone from Fox News and will be joining a major liberal network.

Brazile, who was fired as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Chairwoman for giving Hillary Clinton the debate questions during the 2016 election, has joined ABC News.

Deadline reported: “Back in 2019, when she joined Fox News, she drew extensive attention for her move to the network, writing for FoxNews.com that ‘to bridge this great divide, we need to bust out of our comfort zone. In coming to work as a commentator at Fox News, trust me, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. My beliefs will be challenged, and I welcome it.’ She continued to make occasional appearances on ABC News during the period as well. Brazile’s presence at Fox News was a source of irritation for then President Donald Trump, who occasionally blasted the network for featuring her in their commentary.”

“The release of Wikileaks emails revealed that in 2016, Brazile, as a CNN contributor, had leaked potential town hall topics to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Brazile later called it a mistake I will forever regret, but Trump added his own embellishment to claim that it was evidence that the process was rigged. Brazile and a Fox News spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on her move. Brazile told The Daily Beast that when her contract expired, Fox News offered her “an additional 2-4 years” but she chose to return to ABC,” the outlet added.

Brazile said she had left Fox News of her own accord.

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“Fox never censored my views in any way,” she wrote in an email. “Everyone treated me courteously as a colleague.” Brazile added: “I believe it’s important for all media to expose their audiences to both progressive and conservative viewpoints. With the election and President Biden’s first 100 days behind us, I’ve accomplished what I wanted at Fox News.”

As Fox News continues to make sometimes head-scratching changes to the network’s talent line-up, another long-time host and contributor has learned his fate.

The network has been under an increased amount of scrutiny after taking its prime-time star, Tucker Carlson, off the air in the latter part of April.

Because of that decision, Fox has shed a huge portion of its viewers, and whereas the network once dominated all daytime and primetime slots, now Fox more frequently loses out to liberal rival MSNBC during its most-watched segments.

Many of Fox’s former viewers have bolted to Newsmax TV, which is vying for third place with CNN among major networks.

Since Carlson’s departure, weekend hosts Dan Bongino and, most recently, Steve Hilton have either chosen to leave (in Bongino’s case — after failing to come to terms on a new contract) or have been taken off the air, all of which have led to some major changes on the weekend, especially.

One familiar name that will retain his show and slot: Mark Levin.

“‘The Big Saturday/Sunday Show’ will become ‘The Big Weekend Show,’ airing at 7 PM/ET on Saturdays and Sundays while ‘FOX News Saturday Night’ will premiere at 10 PM/ET. Additionally, ‘The Next Revolution’ will end its 9 PM/ET Sunday run, as Steve Hilton steps back from hosting a weekly show to focus on his new California non-partisan policy organization launching next week. Hilton will remain a contributor across all FOX News Media platforms while Trey Gowdy’s ‘Sunday Night in America’ will move to 9PM/ET,” Fox’s press release continued.

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All said, however, according to the latest ratings figures, Fox News is still dominating cable news; the network remained the most-watched in all of cable news in May.

“The Five” was the highest-rated show on cable news with 2.6 million average total viewers and 267,000 average demo viewers.

“Fox News, in the first full month since firing Tucker Carlson, brought in 1.42 million viewers in primetime – a 37% drop year over year. CNN’s total prime-time viewership sank to 494,000 viewers, a 25% year-over-year decrease. MSNBC, on the other hand, averaged 1.16 million prime-time viewers for a 14% percent gain compared to last year. For comparison, Fox averaged 2.09 million total prime-time viewers in the first quarter of the year, while CNN averaged 568,000 viewers and MSNBC had 1.11 million average viewers,” Mediaite reported.

“Fox News still swept the competition, marking its 27th straight month beating both MSNBC and CNN in total day and prime-time viewers. Fox’s The Five remained the highest-rated show on cable news with 2.6 million average total viewers and 267,000 average demo viewers. Jesse Watters landed second on cable news and cracked the two million viewer mark, while Sean Hannity was the third most watched host on cable,” the outlet added.

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Fox News has announced a slew of changes in recent weeks.

Last week, the network announced that Steve Hilton’s Sunday show in the 9 p.m. time slot has been canceled.

Fox Business has canceled the long-running show “Kennedy,” which airs at 7 p.m. ET. The network plans to air reruns of former Trump administration economist Larry Kudlow. The report said that Lisa Kennedy Montgomery will remain at Fox News, where she will be a recurring figure on “The Five,” “Outnumbered,” and other shows.

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