Jesse Watters Primetime Debuts in the 7p.m. Slot and Lands In Familiar Territory
Jesse Watters Primetime debuted on Fox News Monday night. The new show replaces Fox News Primetime in the 7 p.m. time slot, where a rotating roster of guest hosts starred after a big shakeup at the network about a year ago.
Jesse Watters is also co-host of The Five and former host of the weekend primetime show Watters’ World, whose last episode aired Jan. 15. This is his first foray going solo as host of a daily TV show.
“A famous man once said, ‘You don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’re going,'” he began his opening monologue. “And that famous man was me. So what we’re going to do tonight is tell you where Jesse Watters Primetime’s going. But before we do that, let’s talk about where we are now.”
He declared, “The American people have run out of patience,” and proceeded to rattle off a litany of familiar grievances: greedy leaders; China; the opioid crisis; Wall Street fat cats; Covid lockdowns; cancel culture; crooked politicians.
Watters said the show will be about “connecting with the people and telling it straight,” before playing a montage of him doing inane person-on-the-street interviews to ask New Yorkers the topics they want to see covered: the filibuster; crime; casinos; “odors in the air.” Among their preferred guests were: Ron DeSantis; Kevin Hart; Kyle Rittenhouse; Jeanine Pirro.
“Just know this,” Watters told viewers. “We have a sense of purpose, and a sense of humor. No one says the news has to be boring. And I promise, this show will not be boring.”
Watters also provided a phone number and invited viewers to text him their thoughts. At the end of the show, he said the number had already received 1,100 texts, some of which he read on air.
The first guest was Tucker Carlson, the most watched primetime host on cable news. The host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which immediately follows Primetime, congratulated him on the new gig.
Over the next few segments, Watters trotted out familiar Fox News guests Kellyanne Conway, Dana Loesch, and Stephen Miller, who played their greatest hits on the topics of the day. Also featured was the unvaccinated Sarah Palin, who railed against Covid-19 mandates while she joined the show remotely after testing positive for Covid.
Greg Gutfeld and Dana Perino – two of Watters’ co-hosts from The Five – joined him for the final segment.
A single premiere episode doesn’t make a show, but aside from the slick new set, most of the inaugural offering of Jesse Watters Primetime played like its pre-Watters forerunner.
That show typically underperformed its Fox News peers in the prime time ratings. But now that the time slot has a permanent host with a stronger, more familiar personality, that should bode well for the show’s ability to pull in more viewers.
But it would be a mistake for the program to rely on the same stable of guests that pop up so frequently on other Fox News shows. A successful Jesse Watters Primetime would involve the host cultivating a longer-form version of the on-air persona that has served him well on The Five – a punchy, jocular, and albeit smug iteration of himself who often tangles with the show’s rotating token liberal du jour.
Watters has been with Fox News for two decades and is just 43. He likely has the time and the leeway to experiment and figure out what works, while not being afraid to venture outside the traditional realm of regular Fox News programming.
Some unconventional guests also couldn’t hurt – at least, unconventional for Fox News.
Watch the opening monologue of Jesse Watters Primetime above via Fox News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
