First on TVNewser: Fox News Channel is now branding its daytime shows and moving away from a Fox News Live news wheel format, TVNewser has learned. Today's premiere of America's Newsroom from 9 to 11am is symbolic of the shift.

"Because we are dropping the news wheel and moving to branded hour programs, in the near future individual bookers will be assigned to hours/shows instead of the 'booking unit' system we currently use," SVP Bill Shine wrote today in a memo obtained by TVNewser.

As part of the change, director of booking Laurie Luhn will become senior director of corporate and special events for both FNC and FBC.

"There are more exciting changes to come," Shine said in the memo. Click continued to read the full memo...




To: All

From: Bill Shine, SVP Programming

Date: February 12, 2007

Subject: Changes

Starting today Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly will host the 9am – 11am hours with a program called “America’s Newsroom”. I hope you all welcome Megyn to New York from D.C. ED Hill moves from 10am to 11am. Jon Scott moves from 9am to 12noon. Jon has been a true soldier and workhorse for us here at the Channel and after 7 years at 9am it will be good for the West Coast audience to see him.

Geraldo Rivera is on his way to Iraq and is now planted at 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

This season’s new episodes of War Stories with Oliver North will share the Sunday 10pm timeslot with The Lineup with Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Catherine Herridge will host from DC Saturday’s 12noon – 2pm. We will rotate anchors on Sunday in this time slot until a permanent host for both days is named.

Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace, Laurie Luhn and I have decided to make a change to the way we book guests on the channel. Because we are dropping the news wheel and moving to branded hour programs, in the near future individual bookers will be assigned to hours/shows instead of the “booking unit” system we currently use. We think with the new shows this will make us even more competitive. For years Laurie has been doing double duty not only as the Director of Booking, but also as the unofficial special events coordinator for the network. With so much going on, Laurie has been offered and has accepted a new position as the Senior Director of Corporate and Special Events for both the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Channel. In her new role she will oversee, develop and plan all corporate events for the two channels. Although she’ll still report to me and I will continue to work closely with her, I am personally sorry to see her leave the booking unit, but I do understand her decision to take on this exciting new role. There will be changes to how the booking unit is staffed and structured … more on that at a later date.

This weekend we are going to air a program that was produced by the Executive Producer of 24, Joel Surnow, called the Half Hour News Hour. It is a satirical look at current events and issues that are in the news.

There are more exciting changes to come, change is sometimes hard but change is a good thing.