Bret Baier Hopes To Be “Appointment Viewing For Political Junkies”

Q&A

by Steve Krakauer | 5:32 pm, December 21st, 2009

» 6 comments

A lot has been written here and elsewhere about Fox News’ opinion hosts and the networks overall dominance in the ratings during 2009. But the enormous success is seen beyond the Beck’s, O’Reilly’s and Hannity’s too – as FNC’s news programming is seeing record ratings as well.

We talked to Special Report anchor Bret Baier about his first year at the helm of FNC’s 6pmET newscast, plans for 2010 and his lead-in, Glenn Beck.

“I think its fantastic,” Baier tells Mediaite today about his show’s big ratings. “We are building on what Brit [Hume] created, but its very news-driven in my mind. There are a lot of stories out of Washington that effect everybody’s life. It’s like drinking from a fire hose. Every day is a major, major story that a lot of people are paying attention to.”

The success of the show is evident from its year-to-year ratings average. With a week to go in 2009, the program is on pace to do significantly better than the 6pmET, Hume-anchored broadcast in 2008. It’s up 26% in total viewers and 34% in the A25-54 demographic. In a year where many cable networks not named Fox News have seen declines, the increased average is on par with much of the FNC line-up, including The FOX Report, anchored by Shepard Smith, an hour later (up 16% and 21%).

Still, it has to be noted that the huge year-to-year gains at 5pmET have helped the ratings for Baier’s program. And that thanks goes to Beck. “Glenn is the best lead-in any guy could ask for,” says Baier. “As I’ve said before, a rising tide is great for all the boats in the harbor. He has strong opinions. I don’t watch because that’s my crunch time. But he has done fantastic in the ratings and personally he’s a very nice guy.”

Still Baier’s program offers something very different than Beck’s – and as he looks toward 2010, Baier wants to solidify that point. “I’d like to be appointment viewing for politics junkies who can’t get enough of this stuff,” he says. “And I’m just one of them.”

>>> NEXT PAGE: Baier responds to Hume’s compliment, and the show’s new media outreach.

Pages: 1 2

Bret Baier, fnc, fox news, Glenn Beck, Ratings, Special Report

rmbltmbl

I wager people who watch Beck already know most of the news, like I consider myself to, as it is, after all, commentary. Spinning this about Beck.. come on. I like Special Report especially the insight from Krauthammer. Go Brett.
ImNotBlue

I think one of the things that makes Special Report (and Baier) great, is the ability to cover a lot of stories… especially ones that aren’t getting much attention elsewhere.

For example, on today’s “Grapevine” segment, Baier was able to talk about Sen. Whitehouse’s really offensive comments that the folks opposed to healthcare reform were racists and probably Nazis. He then was able to move into a story about how the PBS Ombudsman felt that the “NewsHour” program didn’t report early enough, or complete enough, on the Climategate story. I’m pretty sure there was one more story after that… but I don’t recall what it was, and the transcript has yet to be posted.

Now, earlier today I had a discussion with Mediaite editor Colby Hall, who said the reason why the Sen. Coburn story was worthy for this site (at least, one of the reasons) was there wasn’t a lot of other stuff to talk about media related. Perhaps Colby should watch more Special Report, and for some ideas.

Oh, and don’t forget the story I posted earlier about MSNBC’s Ed Schultz saying that the White House contacts the folks at Morning Joe directly during the show, when they don’t like the content. Three stories (one not exclusively media relevant, although the lack of coverage surrounding Whitehouse’s comments certainly gives an interesting angle… especially since Coburn’s comments were covered her)… and none of them have made it onto Mediaite yet.

I guess I’ll just have to wait…
TfT

I posted Senator Whitehouse’s comments this morning on the Coburn thread and questioned why there wasn’t a similar article on his comments….I got no response. Of course, Whitehouse’s comments are on a lot of web sites, but they didn’t make it here because….well, I’ll guess it’s because Whitehouse is a democrat. Whitehouse even went so far today to say he never said them, but thanks to CSPAN, there is real video of him saying them.

The MSNBC Ed story is also on a lot of web sites, but again, the sites that are “media-oriented” aren’t reporting it (I checked at TVNewser and I didn’t see it there either). There are also lots of other interesting political stories, like the “cash for cloture” stories showing the $1.2B dollars Reid used to bribe democrat holdouts. And of course, the grand finale of the big vote today where Harry Reid on Television (yes, there is video) said essentially the Senator’s who did not hold out for more aren’t very good Senators. A very interesting comment, much more so than Coburn’s but not worthy of a post here.

Don’t hold your breath while you are waiting, cuz I’m certain these interesting stories won’t be posted here.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

@ImNotBlue – don’t hold your breath or you will be blue.

To be fair, both sides level this stuff at each other all the time. It is bad no matter where it starts.

Special Report is usually reliable and Baier a good anchor. He was pretty darned good at DoD as well.

The Sen. Whitehouse story should have been bigger than the Coburn story. All Coburn did was say that if a Dem. Senator missed the vote, it would be a good thing for those opposed. No bad wishes or loony rhetoric. Whitehouse on the other hand dragged out the labels and names and extreme rhetoric, which is the real problem in American politics today. Congress is almost incapable of doing the job – and has been for a very long time – thanks to the constant extreme, nasty and violent rhetoric from BOTH sides. The new Pundocracy just amps the volume up.

The Majority Leader of the Senate handing out favors to get votes is not new. It is wrong, but it is not new. Reid’s comment about not holding out for more is actually remarkably honest and accurate. A large part of your Senator’s job is to make sure your state gets their share of the pie. Both sides do this and both sides then blame the other for it.

The Schultz thing is just plain stupid. The media people on the President’s staff have contacted shows that get it wrong or disagree for a long time. This is another common practice. In this case, that blowhard Schultz made it sound like MSNBC had a special line to the White House, just to hear himself say it.

Seriously, the media – all of the media – is more about the media than the news these days. One of the things that makes Baier refreshing is that he is actually more about the news than about himself or FNC or the media in general.
ImNotBlue

Keeva says:
December 21, 2009 at 9:29 pm

@ImNotBlue – don’t hold your breath or you will be blue.

Ba-dum… don’t forget to tip your waitress… ;)

As for everything else you said… I concur. Well put.
StewartIII

ChickaBOOMer — Bret Baier: Well-Appointed
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2009/12/glenn-is-best-lead-in-any-guy-could-ask.html