Fox plans to rip off "The Daily Show" with a "non-liberal" version. Roger Ailes "really likes it."

[Human Torch]

Fox News Channel preps right-leaning satire
By Paul J. Gough

Nov 20, 2006

Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a "Daily Show"-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel. The half-hour show is executive produced by "24's" Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for "Politically Incorrect" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls "the sacred cows of the left" that don't get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.

"It's a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel," Surnow said. "It would tip more right as 'The Daily Show' tips left." The show was pitched as "This Just In" when it first got life as a 20-minute pilot presentation for Fox Broadcasting Co.'s late-night division. But when that network passed, Surnow said it attracted the attention of Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes.

"I showed it to Roger, and he really liked it and thought it could work on Fox News if we could make it conform to some of the restraints" of a cable news channel. Fox News Channel confirmed that talks were going on. "Fox News is always looking for new cutting-edge programming ideas," said Bill Shine, senior vp programming at Fox News. "We look forward to working with Joel Surnow on this opportunity." Taped before a studio audience in Los Angeles, the show will feature two co-anchors, actors Kurt Long ("Cuts," "Games Across America") and Susan Yeagley ("Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Reno 911!"). It also will feature person-on-the-street interviews and correspondent reports like other shows. But Surnow said that it's not going to be strictly conservative but more in the spirit of the old and rebellious "Saturday Night Live."

Surnow said the two shows will be completed within the next couple of months and that none of the pilot presentation will be used on air. He said he thinks that it will appeal to millions of people who aren't seeing this type of show on television and that it would skew younger than the normal cable news demographic. "The most exciting thing for us will be that it's going to be fresh," Surnow said.

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fhr%2Fcontent_display%2Ftelevision%2Fnews%2Fe3i61fccc799efa3cb7cc70027d80722adf

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Roger Ailes is a Really Funny Comic Actor

Didn't he play Borat's producer in the recent movie?

I'm amazed he agreed to do the whole naked wrestling thing. Incredible stuff.

[Warpy]

2. They're just repeating Lamebawl's ill fated attempt at

televising his brand of "humor." In other words, they'll pick on appearance and mannerisms and skip substance completely.

Because it's Pox, it'll stay on the air much longer than Lamebawl did, even with terrible ratings.

[Telly Savalas]

44. Actually Dennis Miller's show is a more recent example of this.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't it get cancelled due to low ratings?

[datadiva]

3. Check your title

I think you meant "Right-Leaning", They'll have to go some to beat Jon Stewart. Ha, I can see it now. Visual Free Republic! We could get a few laughs with that I'll bet.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Great Idea!

We should put freepers in a room with a hidden camera. We could start with a spelling bee. Then on to Freeper Jeopardy, the topics being Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, The Rapture, W, and The Democrat Party.

Oh, I could go on and on. This would be AWESOME.

[Human Torch]

14. Well, the so-called satire will be "left-leaning," but...

...I changed the term to "non-liberal," also from the article, so hopefully that clears up any confusion.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. There is already a show for that

It's called South Park.

[silverweb]

5. Oh yeah, that's gonna work.

:eyes:

They'll have to make their jokes so obvious and banal, using very little words so their audience can understand them, that any attempt at satire will fall absolutely flat.

It's gonna be more like the "Fundie Redneck News Show" than anything else.

Good luck with that, Ailes.

:rofl:

[YOY]

6. "Right leaning satire"???

Like "Amos and Andy"?

[Mythsaje]

7. "Jackass" goes political.

Oh, I'm sure it'll be a riot.

NOT.

[liberal N proud]

8. Impossible - viewers of the Daily Show and Cobert require intelligence

The jokes if there are any would fly right over the heads of the wingers

[Fridays Child]

9. As if Fox needs more fictional news. n/t

[Vincardog]

10. When did FAUX worry about "restraints" of a cable news channel"?

Do they even do any news?

[lazyriver]

11. RW satire huh? They could save a lot of money by

just playing re-runs of "Hee Haw".

[Cass]

12. Democrat bashing from the Fair & Balanced channel.

As if this were a new concept to them.

[Contrary1]

15. Maybe they can get "Comedienne Rush Limbaugh"

to anchor this innovative program idea!

Fox must be hurting a wee bit more than they are letting on to consider imitating The Daily Show.

I wonder why? :eyes:

[jumpoffdaplanet]

16. The entire Fox network is one huge fake news show

Having a single show combining all the crap from the other Fox show will make the whole channel look stupider than it does now.

[mitchleary]

20. Yes, Are they not just completeing the parody?

Man are they idiots. Wonder how many viewers will take it seriously like i am sure many do with Colbert.

[Botany]

17. Please please please go head to head against the Daily Show

The talent level at the Daily Show is off the hook anybody would
have a hard time to copy it or its formula.

[Ganja Ninja]

18. "The most exciting thing for us will be that it's going to be fresh,"

Fresh steaming right wing satire, exactly what America's been clamoring for. Don't mind the maggots.

[MADem]

21. I was thinking of the crisp smell of fresh dog turds on an autumn day! NT

[Human Torch]

30. The late actor-slash-actress Divine has a scene with something "fresh"...

...in the movie "Pink Flamingos."

I believe that the new Fox show will be "the same kind of fresh."

;-)

[MADem]

19. Well, it would be "right leaning" if it had a "decidedly nonliberal bent"

Frankly, the left doesn't have an endless supply of sacred cows. The few that exist get their asses handed to them already on South Park, but there's not enough there to make a full-bore show about them. They'll have to broaden their spectrum if they want to make it work. And if they were to be honest, the Daily Show doesn't give those way-off-the-beaten-path types on the left a pass, either. Thus, the whole construct of an opposite number to TDS is a bit flopsweaty-desperate, IMO. And to call a ripoff of TDS mixed with SNL elements and conforming to the 'restraints' of cable "cutting-edge programming" is a bit pathetic, to my mind.

Well, here's hoping they can employ some creativity and get beyond the usual stereotypical leftie gripes, like 'evil smokers' and excessive political correctness. You can't make your living on themes like those, really.

Of course, this sentence caught my eye:
"It's not going to hit you over the head with partisan politics," Surnow said. "It'll hit anything that deserves to be hit."

Sounds like Faux has their finger in the wind...just in case!

[Iris]

22. Perhaps I'll not be watching the next seasn on f24

And this just horrifies me:

"that it would skew younger than the normal cable news demographic."

[alfredo]

25. they were talking mental age.

[Iris]

26. thanks! I feel better!

:pals:

[alfredo]

34. Glad to be of service

[AllegroRondo]

23. Great, a TV version of Mallard Fillmore

and just as not-funny.

[alfredo]

24. for comedy to work one has to have some feeling for the plight

of the common man. The sad sack Chaplin was much funnier than the rich industrialist because Chaplin's humor spoke of the human condition. A poor man kicking a rich man in the butt is a lot funnier than a rich man kicking a poor man in the butt.

[YOY]

27. Oh, but the common man kicking the intellectual elitist sushi eater in the butt is

what this will be all about! They're obviously such folks because they don't think the same as Fox news viewers!

Of course...we are talking about Fox news after all.

[alfredo]

33. But it would wear thin if it lacks humanity. Look at what happened to

Andrew Dice Clay and Dennis Miller.

[YOY]

48. That's our little secret SHHHHH!

It will fall on it's face as it insults more and more of it's audience (just as Dice and Miller did) and is left with a small but equally obnoxious base of clueless sheeple.

;-)

[alfredo]

51. Of course it will be propped up with right wing money, just like

the Washington Times.

[The Count]

36. Bingo! Satire is speaking truth to power. If the powerful ridicules the powerless

then is embarrassing, like kicking a dog, or mocking a cripple.
It's a fundamental truth that the little fascists fail to grasp.

[alfredo]

40. We always pull for the underdog. The Republicans are for the

robber barons, for the "Haves."

[Frank Cannon]

42. It's been true at least since Shakespeare

They just don't fuggin' get it.

[Bobbie Jo]

28. I'm predicting it will suck.....

Republicans just aren't funny. I'm also predicting this endeavor will provide even more material for Stewart/Colbert.

Just when you thought RW'ers couldn't possibly be any lamer.....:dunce:

[buddysmellgood]

29. Sounds like one of the many SNL ripoffs that failed miserably back when SNL was popular.

Actually, why don't they just repackage O'Reilly as a parody on his self?

[The Count]

37. SNL stopped being funny when it stopped satirizing the powerful.

It became irrelevant and sophomoric for this simple reason.

[buddysmellgood]

43. Agreed, although recently I saw SNL. I hadn't watched in years. They did a bit about a

manshark project. It was a failed project that had to go on. People walked around with blood spurting stumps. There was talk of wanting to go home to their families. I was really silly. The point of the skit was not appparent. Then at the end, an actor said that the skit might have been about the war in Iraq or maybe something else.
They are only very cautiously doing a skit like, that now that the tide is turning.

[Goat or Panic]

31. So Faux News is now

Is now officially admitting that they are conservative and also admitting that they are now stealing ideas from a cable comedy show. Has Fox just stopped trying to pretend that they are a real news channel?

[Blue_Tires]

32. copycats?

lal

[Crunchy Frog]

35. I thought Faux News already was RW satire.

:shrug:

[The Count]

39. No, silly. It was RW tragedy. or Drama. Now, they'll add the laugh track to

...well, basically the same thing.

[Beaverhausen]

38. Uhm, the Comedy channel is about comedy...

and Fox "News" is supposed to be about news.

What part of that don't they get?

and what is The Michael Moore Channel?

[HughBeaumont]

41. Note to the right:

Leave the funny and the satire to us, because you really . . .. REALLLLL L L L Y suck at it.

[Atman]

45. Isn't it already on air?

I think its called "The Colbert Report."

.

[wisteria]

46. It won't work. Republicans don't have a sense of humor. n/t

[maine_raptor]

47. My prediction?

They'll get two shows, tops, out of it.

Just how many "fat Michael Moore", or "Bill and Hillary" or "Jimmy Carter and the Rabbit" jokes are there out there anyways?

The material is limited and Dennis Miller shows that every time he opens his mouth. Want proof? Just look at his most recent performance on the Daily Show. Stewart handed him his ass, and Jon was "playing nice" that night.

[Judi Lynn]

49. Right-wing humor has always been very heavy handed and clumsy.

People who are not conscious of others in the deepest, most essential ways become right-wingers. There's a whole lot which goes right over their heads. They need broad, crude humor, and simple ideas to stay interested. Is it likely there are enough slow people in the country to keep shows like this in business?



Looked for the photos of the two people mentioned as the "news anchors." One of the links said that Susan Yeagley has appeared on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and is married to Keven Nealon, from SNL. Kurt Long is the other. I don't recognize him at all.

They don't look like people who write comedy, unlike the guys in the Comedy Central "news" shows.

[Coaster City]

50. Is that what they are calling the OJ Piece?

All the spin after this debacle and Bill-o claiming no relation between Fox News and Fox Entertainment. No connection between rational thought and these idiots.