Mediaite+ Q&A: Four Bonus Questions for Will Cain — New Fox & Friends Weekend Co-Host

Will Cain’s tenure as new co-host of Fox & Friends weekend began earlier this morning — as the former ESPN personality departed the sports network in late June for a return to cable news. Earlier in the week, Mediaite caught up with Cain for a wide-ranging chat about his plans for the new gig. We published part of our conversation on Thursday.

Now, as a bonus for our premium subscribers, here’s more from our interview. In this part of the discussion, Cain dished on the intellectual constraints of morning TV, how he’ll handle sports news on his new politically-dominated show, and whether he considered jumping to any other networks.

This interview has been edited and condensed for content and clarity.

Mediaite: I’m curious if you’ll be intellectually stimulated by morning television, which, by nature, has a more rigid format. At ESPN, between the longer form radio show and some of the stuff that you were doing with Outside the Lines, you had a number of different platforms to stretch, creatively. Is some of that stuff in your future at Fox? Are you going to look to broaden your portfolio here as you go? Or are you sticking with Fox & Friends for now and seeing where that goes?

Will Cain: Fox & Friends is my priority. I intend to make that show absolutely the best show it can be, and be a part of that team. It’s an incredibly successful show and I want to be a part of making it even more. So I want to just like the prime time ratings, beat broadcast news broadcast. Fox News 8 to 11 primetime now beating NBC, ABC, and CBS that’s stunning, right? Broadcast networks being beat by cable network. I hope to be able to do the same with Fox & Friends to beat major network broadcast. Fox & Friends is my priority. I have no concerns about being intellectually stimulated. I think Fox will put me in other places to do other things as well, but Fox & Friends is absolutely my priority.

When a sports issue comes into the Fox & Friends universe, how do you guys plan to handle that and where that fits into the debate? How much of that can viewers expect to see in these next months?

They should expect to see the most important stories in the country reported on and discussed on Fox & Friends. I think sports stories are increasingly part of the diet of most important stories in the country. This, story the president weighed in on with college football, is absolutely one of the biggest stories of the week and the week, and it’s gonna be over the next year. It’s gonna have economic ramifications, it’s gonna have individual ramifications for players. It’s serious to see players now, coaches,, and some ADs all standing up and saying we should play. It’s massive, man.

By the way, it’s also reflective of the debate at large in this country. Is there one policy that should be imposed upon everybody and we should take individual choice away, or should we trust people and their own risk assessment and their own reading of the science to make choices about what they will and will not participate in and respect those that choose to opt out? I think college football and what happens with is not only one of the biggest stories in the country right now — one I would fully expect to be discussed and reported on a program like Fox & Friends — but I also think it is emblematic of the debate at large in this country.

Looking at your background, do you look at Brian Kilmeade as something of a model for what you’re trying to do here on the weekend version? Is that your role going into this? 

Fox News has a bunch of personalities that I think have been incredibly successful and done fascinating things from Kilmeade to [Sean] Hannity to Tucker Carlson. I do take notes from all of them, but in the end, I will be me. I don’t have the ability to be anything else. I don’t just mean that like abstractly or esoteric, but you seem to pay some attention to me either on First Take or on The Will Cain Show, so you do know some of my bearings and my background. One thing that I think is clear is I’m going to be me, no matter the situation, no matter the people I’m around, no matter how popular or unpopular it is, I’m going to be open and honest and be me. And that’s going to be my model.

Was there the temptation to jump to one of Fox News’ competitors? The way I’m hearing it is, you had gotten your fill of being the lone voice in the wilderness. Were looking for a space where you wouldn’t necessarily be alone, but were seeking ideological diversity, so you went to Fox?

Well, I wouldn’t say I got my fill of being the lone voice. That’s not how I feel at all. The fact that there are many, many people at Fox that agree with my worldview and principles and values didn’t have much to do with me choosing to go to Fox News. It was a process of me getting to know Fox and the individuals there in this moment in time that made Fox the right place for me to go. I am incredibly excited about being at Fox News.

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