Fox bites back
Right-wing answer to The Daily Show
America’s Fox News network is planning a right-wing answer to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.Joel Surnow, who co-created 24, is making two half-hour pilots of a show he calls ‘The Daily Show for conservatives’.
They will air on Saturdays in January to judge audience reaction ahead of a possible full series.
Surnow told trade paper Variety: ‘The way I look at it, almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The other side hasn't been skewered in a fair and balanced way.
‘Everybody who is in power should get shots equally,’ Surnow said. ‘By January, we will have a whole bunch of new people to do material about.’
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its spin-off show The Colbert Report have mercilessly parodied both the Bush presidency and Fox News’s slavish cheerleading of the administration.
The working title of the Fox News response was This Just In, but that will change because AOL has launched a broadband comedy channel by that name.
The pilots will be hosted by comedians Kurt Long and Susan Yeagley.
Published: 20 Nov 2006
