Tony Snow Out as ‘Fox News Sunday’ Anchor
Howie Kurtz reports that Tony Snow is being nudged aside for some guy with a bad combover:
Fox News executives believed Tony Snow did a solid job in his seven years as a Sunday morning host, but that it was time for a change.
The leading candidate to replace him as host of “Fox News Sunday,” network sources say, is Chris Wallace, and a deal could be finalized as early as this week. Landing the ABC correspondent, an aggressive journalist with no obvious political leanings, would be a coup for the “fair and balanced” network, which is widely viewed as catering to a conservative audience.
Wallace, the son of “60 Minutes” legend Mike Wallace, is a Sunday morning veteran who was moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” in 1987-88. While leaving his high-profile ABC job to host the fourth-rated Sunday show might seem an unusual leap, it would give him star billing in a growing news division.
Snow, an occasional Rush Limbaugh substitute, is stepping down to start a radio show that will be syndicated by Fox. “I’ve been wanting to do radio for a long time and you’ve got to make some choices,” says Snow, who will continue as a Fox News commentator. Radio “has a sense of immediacy” and “you end up talking about your personal life and all sorts of things that connect with people.”
One would think that, if the goal was to jump start the fourth place show, the network would look for someone who stood out from the crowd a bit. Wallace is perfectly competent but is a virtual clone of dozens of other TV news non-personalities.
I always liked Ashleigh Banfield. For whatever reason MSNBC shoved her aside. No more prime time show of her own. Last time I saw her on MSNBC, she was covering an Army base in Kentucky. Woot!
Fox should give her a call.
I like how you think, Commissar!
Isn’t the talk radio field a little, um, crowded with republicans and right-wingers already? Not sure it needs another one, even though I always sort of liked Snow.