EW’s Ken Tucker uses his appearance — in name only — on Fox News’ “The Five” to deliver a review of the show.

Imagine my surprise last Friday when I turned on my favorite guilty pleasure — Fox News’ The Five, its five-person, 5 p.m. five-days-a-week replacement for the full-fathom-five insanity of Glenn Beck — and saw little ol’ me getting slammed by the panel.

Tucker goes on to explain the slam by Greg Gutfeld, the host who “had been consigned to the wee hours of the morning where he gibbers through his dank-basement frat-party called “Red Eye” as well as the other panelists: “burly Eric Bolling,” “devilishly prim Dana Perino; that huggable grizzly bear in suspenders Bob Beckel,” and Kimberly Guilfoyle and her “ostentatiously framed legs.” Tucker surmises:

(W)hat comes across is the feeling that, unlike so much of what we see on squawky news talk shows, The Five five enjoy each other’s company — they squabble because they’re one big happy family, you know? The result is a delightfully nutty show with an undercurrent of ragin’ crazy.

(h/t J$P)

At the beginning of yesterday’s “The Five” — intended to be a segment on jobs — Bob Beckel, prompted by the other hosts, recounted the story of how he choked at a kickoff lunch for the show yesterday afternoon.

“You just can’t make these things up,” the Fox News Channel host said. “I have a couple people to thank.” Beckel revealed that it was co-host Eric Bolling who jumped to the rescue, aided by “the boss of bosses” at FNC, Roger Ailes, who “stood up and gave me the Heimlich, but he couldn’t get his arms all the way around me.” Watch the video, via Johnny Dollar’s Place, below:

Fox News Channel’s Summer replacement series “The Five” is no longer a Summer replacement. FNC has announced that the program will become the permanent 5 PM show going forward.

“The Five” launched in July as a temporary replacement in the timeslot formerly held by Glenn Beck. Since that time, it has performed well enough toe warrant a continued presence, although it is still down from the ratings peaks of Beck’s time at the channel. Of course, ratings mean nothing if advertisers are afraid of a show, and many were of Beck’s program. As has been well-documented, many advertisers asked to be shifted to other shows to avoid having ads appear on Beck’s program, resulting in FNC having less inventory.

The channel hinted at that problem in the press release announcing “The Five”‘s pickup:

Read more

Washington Whispers went to the North and South Poles of political/media watchdoggery to find out who are the 10 Commentators the Right and Left Love to Hate.

Not too many surprises here. Most of those on the left who the right hates work (or worked) for MSNBC, and most of the those on the right who the left hates work (or worked) for Fox News.

• Media Research Center List:

1. Bill Maher
2. Chris Matthews
3. Joy Behar
4. Ed Schultz
5. Keith Olbermann

• Media Matters List:

1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Glenn Beck
3. Eric Bolling
4. Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, & Brian Kilmeade
5. Sean Hannity

Fox News Channel will debut a new program called “The Five” airing in Glenn Beck‘s soon-to-be vacated timeslot beginning Monday, July 11 and running through the summer.

The show, a “The View”-like ensemble program, will feature a roundtable of five Fox News personalities from among the network’s deep bench of hosts and analysts, including Greg Gutfeld, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Geraldo Rivera, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, Monica Crowley, Bob Beckel and Kimberly Guilfoyle.

In a news release, FNC says the program will also feature added guests, including politicians, celebrities, sports figures and key newsmakers. The show is expected to run through the summer months.

As we reported yesterday, Fox News will air encore presentations of Beck’s program next week.

Release after the jump…

Read more

Today marks the end of ColorofChange.org’s campaign against Glenn Beck.

It was almost two years ago when Beck went on “Fox & Friends” and said that Pres. Obama had “a deep-seeded hatred for white people.”

That marked the begining of a campaign to get advertisers to remove ads from Beck’s Fox News show. ColorofChange.org claims the campaign resulted in the the departure of over 300 advertisers from Beck’s show. “We are happy to see Glenn Beck’s show come to an end,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorofChange.org.

The group ran a full-page ad in Wednesday’s New York Daily News addressed to News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes asking the executives to end what it claims is a “longstanding pattern of Fox News and Fox Business commentators perpetuating race-based fears.”

Really. Really?

Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling might have just Tweeted a new low. Bolling, whose name has been floated as a successor to Glenn Beck‘s 5pm Fox News timeslot, Tweeted this last night:

Really? To claim you’ve outranked a man who died a month ago … on a list Mark Haines probably never knew existed? That’s some serious class. Wonder what Roger Ailes — who was among those paying respects after Haines’ sudden death last month — thinks about this.

With the news yesterday that President Obama released his full birth certificate, a number of primetime programs covered the issue.

One of the most explosive moments came on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on MSNBC. O’Donnell had on as a guest dentist/lawyer/original birther Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits alleging that the President is ineligible to serve.

O’Donnell hosted Taitz to see if the certificate was enough evidence to convince her that she was incorrect. The interview ended in dramatic fashion when O’Donnell kicked her off the show… because she didn’t want to talk about the birth certificate:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

On the other side of the coin, there is Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling on his program “Follow the Money”:

Read more

Glenn Beck is on tour this week — Richmond tonight, Cleveland tomorrow night — so he’s going to have fill-ins this week on his Fox News show. TVNewser has learned Judge Andrew Napolitano is filling in tonight through Wednesday, Eric Bolling on Thursday and a pre-taped Beck special will air Friday. Last week it was announced that Beck would be vacating the FNC 5pm time slot later this year.

Around 10:30, the cable networks began reporting on a deal to keep the government running. The husband and wife CNN team of  John King and Dana Bash broke the news during “Anderson Cooper 360.” Bash even turned up on Fox News around 10:15 during Greta Van Susteren‘s show and again around 10:45 as Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling interviewed Karl Rove, as networks kept cameras trained on the House side. Van Susteren and Bolling are anchoring for their respective Fox networks until Midnight, as will Cooper on CNN.

MSNBC, which normally runs Lockup at 10pm and 11pmET on Friday nights, is live with coverage from Chris Hayes, filling in for Ed Schultz at 10pm and Lawrence O’Donnell at 11pm.

Earlier in the evening, Wolf Blitzer filled in for Piers Morgan at 9pm to continue CNN’s coverage. Bloomberg TV has also been doing cut-ins all night with correspondent Lizzie O’Leary.

CNN’s Bash got out of the shot just in time for Rep. John Boehner to arrive at 10:53pmET announcing a deal had been struck on a continuing resolution and ultimately a final deal.

> Update: Pres. Obama spoke at 11:04pmET. Because Obama’s remarks occurred during the late local news in the Eastern and Central Time Zones the networks left it to the local stations to carry the statement. But at least one network correspondent, CBS’s Chip Reid did a Q&A with WCBS in New York.

> Update: At MidnightET Fox News with Bret Baier and MSNBC with Lawrence O’Donnell continued live. CNN re-aired the 11pm hour of AC360.