In a surprise announcement Thursday afternoon, the Fox Business Network announced a major makeover of its primetime lineup. The new look slate will feature re-airs of The Willis Report, Cavuto, and Lou Dobbs Tonight, while ending the runs of FreedomWatch with Judge Andrew Napolitano, Power & Money with David Asman, and Follow the Money with Eric Bolling. In addition, the network will be developing a new show featuring Melissa Francis, which will eventually air at 5 p.m., bumping Gerri Willis‘ show to 8 p.m. (Willis will air live at 5 p.m. with re-airs at 8 p.m. until the second quarter).

In his personal life, Rep. Ron Paul is known for being a conservative family man that opposes most excesses, but by virtue of being a libertarian candidate, he attracts supporters from all walks of life. This week on Freedom Watch, Judge Andrew Napolitano spoke to two of those supporters, employees at Nevada’s “Bunny Ranch” who believe that Rep. Paul is “the modern-day Thomas Jefferson” and trust his ability to lead.

Fox News’ Shepard Smith is clearly none too interested in Donald Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. Reporting that the Apprentice host’s speech would be coming up in the next few hours, he gave it all the respect and seriousness he felt it deserved.

In other words, he then joked that endorsements from Shakira and Big Bird would be coming next.

Every time Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow scores a touchdown, he drops to one knee and bows his head to his hand, a phenomenon that has come to be known as “Tebowing.” It’s sparked a nationwide craze, much like the equally-annoying Planking movement from this summer. But a group of Long Island high schoolers have found out the hard way that Tebowing isn’t always without consequences.

Back in May, Judge Andrew Napolitano seemed almost a shoo-in to take over Fox News Channel’s 5PM time, slot vacated by Glenn Beck. Beck himself stated, on air, that he’d like to hand over the reins to his frequent guest and replacement host, and the Judge was named one of the regular panelists on the temporary replacement show The Five when it debuted this summer. But it might have seemed somewhat discouraging to Napolitano when news came that the temporary status of The Five was made permanent as the 5PM offering — and he wasn’t part of the program.

This afternoon on Twitter, Andrew Napolitano alleged I was being unfair in my assertion that all the big cable channels were falling into strict party lines in their coverage of the Wall Street protests, asking if I had ignored his coverage. Perhaps he has a point and, if so, I apologize. Maybe I was distracted from the goings on over at The Five where, last week, Eric Bolling donned a tin foil hat to mock the protesters. Whatever, the case, soon we won’t have to worry about it anymore because, today, Bolling promised that the protesters would all be gone soon.

Oh, well, that’s good to know.

Fans of The Five can throw their hands in the air (perhaps even waving them like they just don’t care) and rejoice to the news that Fox News has announced that the 5pm panel show has become a permanent fixture on the cable news dial, thus increasing the chances that we will one day see the Bob Beckel/Eric Bolling fist fight we’re all so eagerly awaiting.

Judge Andrew Napolitano sees something suspicious in the timing of President Obama’s major executive announcements: they seem to happen whenever Congress isn’t in session. On last night’s Freedom Watch, the Judge and Reason.tv editor Nick Gillespie debated the relative constitutionality of President Obama’s proposed No Child Left Behind overhaul and agreed– it’s about as constitutional as our “kinetic activities” in Libya, and also announced when Congress is on vacation.

Today on The Five, the panel tackled recent comments by President Obama during a speech at the University of Maryland in which he talked about the increasingly “splintered” media with Democrats only getting their news from The New York Times and MSNBC while Republicans use Fox News and editorials in the Wall Street Journal. While these aren’t exactly new comments from the President, the panelists read much into them and had a lot of issues.

Earlier this week, a shocking report from Reason Magazine revealed how one of its online producers had been arrested for filming the arrest of another reporter filming a public meeting of the D.C. Taxicab commission. That reporter, Jim Epstein, appeared earlier this week on Fox Business’s Freedom Watch and told host Judge Andrew Napolitano that, now released, he had still not been given adequate explanation from police as to why he was arrested.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin made an appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano‘s Freedom Watch to discuss the hoopla surrounding her emails (In a nutshell: Palin rightly points out that the entire situation was wildly dumb. In so many words.) She also took a moment to comment on Anthony Weiner‘s scandal. Judge Napolitano asked Palin whether she thought Weiner’s constituents were “entitled to have a pervert representing them in Congress” if that is what they so choose.

Last month, following Glenn Beck’s announcement that he would soon be leaving Fox News and then took a brief vacation, hosting duties fell to Andrew Napolitano and then Eric Bolling spent some time as guest host. At the time, our own Frances Martel chose a clip of Bolling getting into “a fiery debate” with Lansing, Michigan Mayor Virg Bernero as a good sample of what the Fox Business host’s version of a 5pm show would be like were he to take over permanently. Well, a few weeks later, Beck’s out again (partying it up in Israel), Napolitano got his turn yesterday, and so it was Bolling’s chance today and he, again, fought with Bernero for a few minutes about unions. Fortunately, this combination still makes for some good, raised voice television.

Last night Judge Andrew Napolitano invited Glenn Beck on his show to discuss whether in light of Osama bin Laden’s killing, could the President now order the targeted assassination of anyone he wants around the world? Yet much like the previous night, the conversation quickly became consumed with Napolitano asking Beck to respond to his speculation about potential theories of what really might have happened.

Yesterday’s news that Glenn Beck was leaving his Fox News program sent shockwaves through the opinion media ranks. Reaction predictably fell along party lines, with those on the right lamenting Beck’s departure, and those on the left taking credit for his scalp. Beck’s message to the former was simple: we will find each other in the next iteration of the Glenn Beck Experience™, and his message to his detractors? You are going to pray for the days of when he was only on at 5PM. (Sturm and drang!)

How did President Obama go from “anti-colonial” to “neo-colonial” in less than a month? Judge Andrew Napolitano took a detour from the regular civil liberties/end the Fed fare on Freedom Watch today to take a look at the specific events in Libya. To guests Congressmen Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, President Obama’s actions not only flagrant disregard the Constitution, but put Obama dangerously close to spearheading an “imperial presidency.”

Among the most important details in President Obama’s decision to aid an intervention in Libya is that the President promised not to put boots on the ground in Libya, limiting America’s involvement to air strikes. On last night’s Freedom Watch, Judge Andrew Napolitano had on a guest arguing the logistical possibility of conducting air strikes without people on the ground is slim to none, and Napolitano himself suggested it was possible troops had entered Libya long before the public even knew we would get involved.

Yesterday, an Indiana judge ruled that news outlets can be legally forced to reveal information about the people who post anonymously on their websites. On Studio B today, Shepard Smith and Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed the uses for commenting without identification. Both of them seemed to agree that there was a reason for it. However, after reading some of the comments on FoxNews.com, Smith questioned why anyone would want to read the stuff.

On this afternoon’s Studio B, Fox News’ Shepard Smith announced the Supreme Court’s 8 to 1 ruling that the fundamentalist, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-gay protests near military funerals are protected under the First Amendment. The organization has faced overwhelming criticism not only for its hateful and homophobic rhetoric, but also for its proclivity towards protesting the funerals of soldiers and, recently, those organized for the victims of the Tucson, Arizona shooting that left nine dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the hospital with a bullet to the head.

On Fox & Friends this morning, the discussion turned to the recent vote to extend the Patriot Act with Judge Andrew Napolitano serving as the voice of the disappointed since he feels the law goes against the Constitution. After Gretchen Carlson tried to explain to him that the founders didn’t have to deal with scary terrorists like we do, he quickly shut her down. It was a perfect example of what Glenn Beck would call a “spanking.” However, since we still plan on being able to eat our lunches, so we’ll call it a “shutting down.”

The question seems straightforward enough: in the midst of a massive economic downturn, are America’s poor faring worse…or not? On Fox Business’ Freedom Watch, Judge Andrew Napolitano asked economics professor Steve Horwitz to debunk “the myth” of the poor getting poorer. Rattling off a series of statistics (the bottom fifth of U.S. households in 1975 earned $28,000 more in 1991), Professor Horwitz argued the poor are, in fact, doing far better today than they were thirty years ago. That led Napolitano to offer the “electronic appliance” argument:

Jared Lougher has entered a not guilty plea on charges the he attempted to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides.

A total of six people – including Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green – died during Loughner’s shooting rampage outside a Tuscon, Arizona Safeway, where Giffords was conducting a meet-and-greet with her constituents.

Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano visited Studio B to discuss how Jared Loughner‘s case may unfold as lawyers, doctors and a grand jury attempt to determine whether the 22-year-old who put a bullet into Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords‘ head before turning his gun on John Roll and a nine-year-old child, among others, had the presence of mind to know what he was doing.

As a fierce libertarian, Judge Andrew Napolitano often takes positions that seem contrarian to the conservative and traditional points-of-view espoused by hosts of Fox News prime time shows. But now that he hosts his own show on the Fox Business Network, he can take the show in directions one might normally expect. Case in point: his recent interview with the former sex worker and published author of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl Tracy Quan over the legalization of prostitution.

Republican Congressman Ron Paul may be Julian Assange‘s most loyal supporter in Congress. Visiting Fox Business’ Freedom Watch– a program on which Assange has been welcome several times– Rep. Paul went to bat for the Wikileaker in the middle of condemning the secrecy of the Federal Reserve, and made a little request of his own: “every conversation of the last ten years with the Federal Reserve people.” Chop, chop, Assange!

Back in June, a Fox Business Network promo featured only Fox News stars, touting the new financial channel.

Now there’s a new marketing strategy out, in ads playing on News Corp. cable news networks but also across the dial, that features Fox News talent tag-teaming with Fox Business hosts – including one with Glenn Beck and somtime-fill-in Andrew Napolitano.