Comedy news for the right-wing? Considering the success of Comedy Central’s political satire shows, it seemed like an interesting idea. Apparently not enough viewers agreed.
FOX News Channel (FNC) has decided to pull the plug on The 1/2 Hour News Hour. The series was created by 24 producers Joel Surnow and Manny Coto as an alternative to the popular The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report. The first episode boasted guest appearances by conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham and attracted a healthy 1.4 million viewers. But, despite multiple plugs by Limbaugh on his radio show, the audience numbers dwindled downward from there. FNC has cancelled the series after 15 episodes, the last of which will air on September 16, 2007.
There is a possibility that The 1/2 Hour News Hour may return at some point in the future. In a memo to staff yesterday, FNC Senior Vice-president Bill Shine said, “While HHNH performed admirably in the ratings and [anchors] 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.” Stay tuned! 
The show wasn’t that bad, if for no other reason it was fun seeing well known libs being the butt of the jokes for a change.
I thought the show was great after I stumbled onto it. Sure wish they had promoted it a little. I thought it got better with time and if anybody found it they were lucky.
With the Left owning 95% of TV and the print media, why in HELL did you cancel it ??!!???
Dammit, SOMEBODY has to fight fire with fire…..talk radio is not enough. PLEASE reinstate it.
I’m upset that the show isn’t on anymore. But I recorded most of the episodes. I liked it because they made fun of people that I don’t like, like Al Gore. I can’t stand him.
I liked this show for it’s political humor. I had it set to record on my TV tuner for my PC.
I am pretty sure there wasn’t a laughtrack because there were people in the audience that they panned to before the show starts. It was funny. Guy White wasn’t that great, but was funny at times.
To those of you who complained about how “terrible” the show was: Who FORCED you to watch it? You have CNBC, Oxygen, and PBS to suckle you.
I’m mad…I just discovered the show last month and now it is over? I loved it! It was like someone finally understood the silent MAJORITY of us out there.
The Leftists win again!
Good riddance. It was a tasteless conservative ripoff of “The Daily Show.” Adding conservative convert Dennis Milller (he once referred to Marilyn Quayle as “one Republican *****”) to legitimize it did not help. Maybe someday Fox will come up with an original idea, but I doubt it.
You liberals are too funny. The show was hilarious, and Dennis Miller was a highlight. Just because you are not intelligent enough to understand his complex jokes. I bet you wear tie-dyes, sandals and smell of patchuli
I hated it. In my opinion, Fox degraded itself with this boring, tasteless, “put me to sleep” show. Good riddance!
Would have been great without the dreadful Dennis Miller. Miller was just not funny and was a drag on the show.
Guy White, closet conservative and The ACLU ads were classic.
Please bring back sans Miller.
Thank God. What an awful, hateful show with some of the WORST jokes I’ve ever heard on TV. It was so bad that it was often difficult to tell where the punchlines were. I guess they figured that if they recited their lines sassy enough, people would laugh. Guess that’s why they needed the laugh track.
I personally didn’t even realize it had started up yet (great marketing push guys). Also as a Canadian I am a bit miffed over the name of the show. A hit and television mainstay up here in Canada that covered News and Politics with a twist of sketch comedy thrown in is called “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” (22 minutes is the length of programming in Canada when you remove the breaks from a half hour show). The title refers back to an old black and white CBC News Magazine called “This Hour has 7 Days” that boasted the invention… Read more »
I couldn’t stand that show. It was a combo ripoff of SNL’s Weekend Update and the Daily Show – and did a bad job at it.
But I am sure there were fans, so sorry to those fans who lost it.