Half Hour News Hour: Fin

It is not with great frequency that we can see something ill-conceived and poorly executed fall on its face to receive the humiliation it deserves. It did take some time, but Fox's Half-Hour News Hour has stepped on the banana peel to the most triumphant biff.



The Memo from TVNewser:

August 14, 2007

TO: Senior Producers

FR: Bill Shine

RE: Half Hour News Hour/Weekend Programming

I'd like to share some news with you about weekend programming.

Joel Surnow and I have mutually decided that we will not continue the Half Hour News Hour beyond its current 15 episode run. The last show will be presented on September 16th.

While HHNH performed admirably in the ratings and Kurt Long and Jennifer Robertson did a wonderful job, we are considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs. There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Joel and his team. He is a visionary in this business and he created a contrarian program that fulfilled an untapped niche in the comedy genre.

My first - and last - experience with the show was an accidental stumble through the cable box. The anchors were trying their hand at "politically correct" show titles, or something of the sort. They said the new "Hairspray" would be environmentally friendly with less CFCs. Queue canned laughter. Non-essential CFCs (like in hairspray) were banned in 1978. I changed the channel.

Why did this "answer to the Daily Show" fail? It wasn't funny. Conservative humor can be exemplified in the person of Ann Coulter; she blasts the left with comments meant to get a rise, meant to enrage and inflame, but when she's called on it, she calmly says "What, cantcha take a joke?" and is then backed by Hannity and Limbaugh simultaneously farting out "What, cantcha take a joke?"

That's not humor. That's ignorant and mean. I'm just glad to see a lack of taste for this kind of stupidity.