From Jeanine Pirro to Jesse Watters: What to Watch on Fox News During the Weekend

Weekend programming is a different beast than the hectic nature of weekday cable news. It can be sparser, but it’s no less fascinating for the cable news junkie. Mediaite is here to offer a primer on what to expect from weekend offerings on cable news — with Fox News Channel as the focus for this final installment.

This writer, it should be noted, is well immersed in the goings on of cable news on the weekend by virtue of being one of Mediaite’s weekend editors.

Fox News’ weekend programming is ostensibly among the most important programming in the U.S. – given that President Donald Trump is a consistent viewer, prone to sending out tweets extolling the shows airing on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Fox’s weekend lineup also is generally more prone to experimentation in format in contrast to the controlled efficiency of the weekday lineup — for example Fox Nation (Fox’s streaming service) has found a home on Sunday nights with previews of documentaries and interview shows that are otherwise only available on the platform.

Many of the hosts (apart from the news hour hosts) are familiar for weekday viewers: Jesse Watters and Mark Levin to name two, though they now have control of their own programs as opposed to working within the confines of The Five or Hannity.

Apart from the network’s opinion programming, Fox’s news-oriented side on the weekend is anchored by America’s News Headquarters – which itself is anchored by Eric Shawn, Leland Vittert, Gillian Turner and Arthel Neville throughout Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Fox News Sunday — 9 a.m. on Fox affiliates, re-airs on Fox News later in the day

Fox News Sunday is probably the most venerable program on Fox’s schedule, and arguably the network’s crown jewel of news programming. Anchored by Chris Wallace, the show serves up compelling interviews of both Democratic and Republican lawmakers every week. These interviews are accentuated as must-watches (and must-posts for Mediaite) due to Wallace’s relentless style of interviewing, very rarely letting any subject off the hook or prepared talking point – to the point that even experienced interviewee can be left drawing a blank.

Wallace’s 2018 interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin even earned Fox News its first-ever Emmy nomination.

MediaBuzz — 11 a.m. Sunday

Fox’s chief media analyst Howard Kurtz has been doing media criticism for a very long time — he actually hosted Reliable Sources for well over 15 years before jumping over to Fox News where he now hosts a direct competitor to CNN’s media analysis show. Unlike Reliable Sources, Kurtz has the program pretty intensely focused on media bias — paired with an admirable focus on reporting out polling past just the big takeaways.

Sunday Morning Futures — 10 a.m. Sunday

It would probably be fair to describe Maria Bartiromo as one of Fox’s stars, with Sunday Morning Futures being the financial journalist’s flagship program. Although frequently praised by President Donald Trump, Bartiromo has conducted tough interviews of people in his orbit like Rudy Giuliani on this program. She also counts major lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham as near-weekly guests on her Sunday program.

Cavuto Live — 10 a.m. Saturday

Neil Cavuto is frankly, a workhorse for the engine of Fox News –– hosting hours of television on both Fox News and Fox Business during the week and closing it out with this two-hour block of programming on Saturday mornings. Although Cavuto displays a more discursive style of interviewing than other interviewers, he usually lands sitting lawmakers for interesting interviews during a tough time slot on top of his frequent championing of Fox’s news division.

America’s News HQ with Ed Henry – 12 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

I feel compelled to include this as a separate item because Henry is a fascinating figure in Fox programming. Henry straddles a line between opinion and hard news, given his role as a morning show host and an anchor — often throwing off subjects who expect a friendlier interview, like when Henry famously tore apart former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.

Watters’ World with Jesse Watters — 8 p.m. Saturday

This has emerged as a uniquely important show, given the president has become an avid watcher and tweeter of its clips. Watters will rarely see a week where he doesn’t host a senior Trump administration official or Trump family member to denounce “the left” or Democrats. Watters has also taken to delivering a big monologue at the beginning of the show that feels more serious than his presence on The Five, often instructing his audience not to trust what they are seeing on other news networks.

Justice with Judge Jeanine — 9 p.m. Saturday

Also an important show for people following the Trump administration, as Pirro’s monologues have commonly been reposted on Trump’s Twitter feed. Pirro will also frequently interview members of Republican congressional leadership or leaders in the conservative wing of the party like Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan. Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino are also frequent guests, but that’s more for hitting “the left” that acts as the bugbear for Pirro and her guests. One thing that can’t be denied: Pirro’s ratings are huge.

Life, Liberty and Levin with Mark Levin – 8 p.m. Sunday

Levin hosts a show pretty unlike any other shows on cable. I can’t think of any network other than Fox that features a sit-down interview between a host and subject that lasts an entire hour — and allows for long discursive answers (probably the closest cable program in style would be The Axe Files on CNN). Levin also tends to interview figures outside of the news cycle, which can provide interesting perspective for his viewers that may not be seen on other networks.

The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton – 9 p.m. Sunday

Another unique program. The Next Revolution is unquestionably pro-Trump, with the host, a former U.K. political operative, extolling the president’s “populism” week after week. However, Hilton is also more than willing to critique the officials surrounding the president and even occasionally exerts his audience to use direct action like phone calls to express their displeasure with an issue. That can get Hilton into trouble, like when Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani threatened to sue after the Fox News host instructed Trump to “dump” him. It’s probably the closest thing to an “activist” program one will see on Fox News. Not to mention that Hilton scored a sit-down with Trump earlier this year that made headlines with Trump rebuking Mick Mulvaney’s talk on infrastructure.

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