Megyn Kelly to Get Prime-Time Slot on Fox News

At the New York Times:

Back in my May 7 story (http://t.co/fRRaUPBe2c) Greta Van Susteren's husband hinted about a new time slot for her. Maybe weekend prime time?

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 2, 2013

The second quarter of 2013 cemented the recent ratings trends in cable news, with CNN rising and MSNBC falling, while Fox News continued its overall dominance.

But within those quarterly reports was the news that in June Fox News scored its lowest ratings since August 2001 among the viewers news advertisers most want to reach, the 25-to-54 age group. The network may be trying to address this issue with its decision to elevate one of its rising stars, Megyn Kelly, to a prime-time slot as soon as she returns from a planned maternity leave in the next few months. Fox made that expected promotion official on Tuesday.

Fox did not announce a specific show for Ms. Kelly or whose place she would be taking in the network’s prime-time lineup. However, speculation has centered on Greta Van Susteren, the 10 p.m. anchor. Ms. Van Susteren recently signed an extension of her Fox contract but her future role is not certain at this point.

Her husband, John Coale, said in an interview with The Times in May that she would be willing to move to an earlier hour. Several Web sites, including Mediaite, reported this week that Ms. Van Susteren had held talks with CNN, seeking a job at that network. A CNN executive confirmed Tuesday that those talks had taken place.

Fox News also announced on Tuesday that it had extended the contracts of all its evening and prime-time anchors: Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Bret Baier and Shepard Smith.

All those men continued to pile up huge advantages over their competitors in terms of total viewers in the second quarter, as did Fox News, which was up 12 percent in total day ratings and 3 percent in the Monday through Friday prime-time ratings.

But Fox News did show declines among viewers between 25 and 54, the group that accounts for the bulk of ad revenue for news networks. For the quarter, Fox was down 6 percent in total day ratings in that category and 12 percent in the prime-time hours.

Absolutely worst hit: Lying dirtbag Rachel Maddow at the communist MSNBC.