As we have noted before, Onion News Network lead anchor “Brooke Alvarez” is played by Suzanne Sena, who knows a thing or two about the actual cable news business. Sena worked for Fox News Channel as a news anchor, handling news updates and breaking news, primarily on overnights.

She spoke to New York‘s Vulture about making the jump from cable news to fake cable news:

Do you think a “normal” actress could’ve played Brooke Alvarez, or is being a cable anchor too specialized a skill?

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Fake news fans rejoice! IFC announced at its upfront presentation today that it has renewed “The Onion News Network” for a second season.

IFC has ordered 16 half-hour episodes of the series, which features “programming” from the “channel” such as the “FactZone with Brooke Alvarez” and “Today Now.”

See this clip from the “FactZone,” with Alvarez (played by former Fox News anchor Suzanne Sena) asking the show’s panel of regular Americans what they think about an unusual budget proposal from Congress:

Season two of “The Onion News Network” will premiere in October, 2011.

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Earlier today IFC held a lunch to celebrate the launch of its own cable news operation, The Onion News Network.

Anchors “Brooke Alvarez” (played by former Fox News Channel anchor Suzanne Sena). “Tucker Hope” (played by Todd Alan Crain), “Jim Haggerty” (Brad Holbrook) and Tracy Gill (Tracy Toth) appeared in a panel discussion moderated by Jonathan Alter, and also spoke to media reporters–in character–about the fake news show.

(l-r) Jim Haggerty, Tracy Gill, Brooke Alvarez, Tucker Hope and Jonathan Alter

“On behalf of our entire news team, I just wanted to say thank you to our competitors at CNN, Fox News and MSNBC,” said ONN executive producer Will Graham at the start of the lunch. “They really set the bar so high, whether it is making their graphics swooshier, or doing more and more coverage of missing teen girls every day, we wouldn’t have the inspiration that keeps driving us. Thank you to them, and just know that we will never misinform the public as much as they do.”

The program takes the format of cable news, and uses it to push outlandish stories… albeit stories with a grain of truth. For example, coverage of nasty winter weather comes with the splashy chyron: “SNOWLOCAUST:”
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Come January, there will be a new cable news outlet in town. The Onion News Network will premiere on IFC January 21 at 10 PM, the network says.

ONN is a TV spin-off of the popular web series, which is itself a spin-off of the satirical newspaper The Onion. While The Onion mocks the often stodgy newspaper business, ONN mocks the bombastic world of cable news:

Onion News Network – Coming To IFC January 2011

Yes, in the trailer you may have noticed former Fox News Channel breaking news anchor Suzanne Sena, who plays the ONN lead anchor “Brooke Alvarez” in the show.

More information, including the ONN versions of Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace, after the jump.
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Suzanne Sena, former primetime/late night news anchor on Fox News Channel, is back in front of the camera, this time anchoring for ONN: Onion News Network. Sena worked for FNC from 2006-2008 and appeared on “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld.” She also filled in on Fox & Friends Weekend. For ONN, Sena anchors coverage of a malfunctioning TelePromTer at the White House.