Happening Tomorrow?

Happening Now: is FNC’s most boring morning show getting a much needed Jane jolt? Today, co-hosts Jane Skinner and Jon Scott haunted the news room a la Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher on FNC’s now defunct Live Desk, the show that formerly followed HN. Perhaps, Fox News’ Bill Shine is finally trying to get his “plain” Jane to be a little less vanilla and to spice up the show a scintilla.

Generally, both Jane and Jon stay behind their desk in a fashion akin to America’s Newsroom co-anchors Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer when one or both of them would similarly so sit in the very early days of AN. Of course, Shine changed the set somewhat when he appeared to have an epiphany that AN’s rating might be enhanced if viewers caught a glimpse of Megyn’s gorgeous gams. Whether he has the same thing in mind now for Jane, time will tell. However, Jane seemed not to be fully compliant today: she sheathed her stems in slacks to elude that errant eye.

Bravo, Bill. You surely need to do something to make Happening Now actually happen soon. Otherwise, you may as well confine HN to Sirius radio.

“In for Megyn”: Not!

“I’m Martha MacCallum: Good morning, everybody!” After Mediaite‘s report that Megyn Kelly was leaving America’s Newsroom (and had secured her own show during the Live Desk slot), Martha appeared ready to let the AN audience know that a new alpha vixen was now in control. Seemingly, freed from her beta role, she was no longer “in for Megyn” and dressing like a bridesmaid, she was simply “Martha MacCallum” and dressed to impress in her ironically “Kelly green” arm-baring short dress and ebony spikish high heels.

Hello, Martha! See you later, Megyn. Literally.

Wherefore Art Thou, Juliet?

Where in the world is Juliet Huddy? Of late, the sexy siren is nowhere to be found on the Fox News network. In fact, so much so that Juliet junkies are exhibiting tell-tale DT’s.

Shortly before the blond beauty re-signed with FNC and immediately subsequent thereto, Juliet was almost everywhere. In the morning and early afternoon, she subbed for Gretchen Carlson on Fox & Friends, Megyn Kelly on America’s Newsroom, and Martha MacCallum on Live Desk. In the evening, she contributed on the “Dumbest Things” segment on the O’Reilly Factor with Greg Gutfeld. And, in the dark of night, she haunted Red Eye as a panelist in the vaunted “leg chair.”

Where is FNC’s foxy femme fatale? Who knows? Perhaps, Juliet will Tweet her undisclosed location to her Twitter followers.

According to Putin, that cold day in Hades may be approaching sooner than one may think.

FNC’s Musical Chairs?

For Martha MacCallum, Juliet Huddy, and Megyn Kelly, it sounds as if the music has begun. Strangely, Fox News seems to have anchor Martha MacCallum in every chair but her own on Live Desk this week. Monday it was Fox & Friends: Tuesday, Wednesday, and today, it’s America’s Newsroom.

Perhaps, FNC Senior Veep of Programming Bill Shine is taking advantage of the remainder of Megyn Kelly’s maternity leave this year (from America’s Newsroom) to see if he can adjust the roster to accommodate his returning star Juliet Huddy. Evidence of such a move may be Shine’s moving Martha this week to Fox & Friends Monday and then to America’s Newsroom Tuesday-today even though she is currently the Live Desk co-anchor. Filling in for Martha on LD Monday-Wednesday and returning Friday, has been re-signed Juliet Huddy. (Ailes’ new Energizer bunny Alisyn Camerota is scheduled to fill in on LD today.)

If Martha settles in well with co-anchor Bill Hemmer on AN and Juliet with co-host Trace Gallagher on LD, Shine would be able to free up his rising star Megyn Kelly to host her own show. As has been rumored, she could replace Greta van Susteren in the evenings if Greta does not re-up. On the other hand, Megyn could allow Shepard Smith to concentrate on just one show instead of the two that he hosts each week day (Studio B and the Fox Report): if she did that, she would be give women greater representation on a male-dominated afternoon and evening schedule. (Of eight shows, all of the anchors are men save one, Greta van Susteren, who hosts On the Record.)

When the music stops in January, look around and see if everyone has a chair, and, if so, where exactly they are seated.

Clayton’s Chyron: “Mile-High” Mystery

Naughty Northwest pilots? If the viewer was too riveted to Fox & Friends Weekend co-anchor Clayton Morris this morning, one might have missed what he seemed to really say. Or, in this case, didn’t say. Especially, if her eyes did not glance down upon the “telling” banner at the bottom of the screen.

In Clayton’s preview of an upcoming segment on the Northwest pilots who missed their Minneapolis landing strip by 150 miles, he asked, “What exactly was distracting them, and, do we really want to know?” Co-host Alisyn Camerota guffawed loudly, and co-anchor Dave Briggs animatedly answered, “Yes!”

During the segment itself, audio transmissions between the pilots and traffic controllers were aired. After listening to the pilots refuse to fully elaborate as to the nature of the cockpit distractions that got them off course, Aly opined, “They are covering some rear ends.” Clayton commented, “They did go on to say… [that they talked about] company issues…crew restructuring.” Dave declared, “You can’t tell me that they were that concerned by these [sic] scheduling program that they forgot about the 150 people behind them. Overtly, the trio said little more: However, a suggestive chyron proclaimed, “Mile-High Distraction: Audio of Runway Overshoot Released.”

[For viewers of Live Desk or Studio B with Shepard Smith, this banner repeated speculation a month old. For the bawdy banter between Shep and LD’s co-anchor, Trace Gallagher and Martha MacCallum, and Shep, cf. Carpe Diem’s “Shep: ‘Mile-High Club Pilots?“

Martha: “Buzzed” Live?

Was the Live Desk a bit too live for Martha MacCallum today? As she and co-anchor Trace Gallagher covered the liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis, they interviewed former NASA astronaut Tom Jones. With regard to the administration’s active review of the NASA program Martha asked, “Any sense of how that evaluation is going and whether or not we’re going to see more extraordinary travels into space and beyond?”

Out of the blue, an unknown and “unshown” woman was heard, saying, “That sounded like Bud [sic] Lightyear right there.”* Not directly acknowledging the probable producer whose “whisper” was apparently inadvertently aired, Martha responded with a hearty laugh. Ignoring or not hearing the interjection, Jones simply answered the question and co-host Trace uttered not a word.

Martha, did your producer mean Bud Lite Year or Buzz Lightyear?

*Live Desk – 11/16/09 (@2:36 p.m. ET)

Courtney Friel Resurrected

Happy Halloween from Courtney Friel, Fox News’ Morticia! Dressed in black, the former blond bikini Maxim model, seemingly, came back to life on the Live Desk today after her disappearance on September 3 (according to Inside Cable News).* However, like an apparition, her presence was strangely short-lived after she introduced a sound bite mid-story that failed to materialize.

Welcome back, Courtney! Maybe, you can stick around for a while next time.

*Live Desk – 10/30/09 (@2:37 p.m. ET)

Shep: “Mile-High Club” Pilots?

For the second day in a row, Studio B‘s Shepard Smith has intimated that the errant Northwest pilots may not have been on their laptops in the cockpit. However, he seemed to suggest that their “laptops” may have been otherwise occupied. I.e., they may have busy joining the V.I.P. section of the Mile High Club.

As Live Desk co-anchors Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher segued to Shep for his show this afternoon, Shep asked, “Trace, what do you think they were doing in that cockpit?”* Chuckling, Martha interjected, “I’ll tell you later!” Trace then replied, “I have my own theories: I just can’t say on national television.”

Suggestively, Shep responded, “I bet everybody’s thinking them.” Persuaded to share, Trace answered, “Yeah. They were saying the flight attendants were banging on the door. And, you’re like, were they trying to get in or trying to get [out]?” Racily, Martha added, “They were busy!” With a mischievous smile and a goatish gleam in his eye, Shep remarked, “They were a mile high!”

Grinning, Trace echoed, “They were a mile high, my man.” Looking down, Martha agreed, “They were!” Shep wantonly concluded, “Not that there’s a club but they were a mile high. More even.”

Live Desk – 10/27/09 (@2:59 p.m.)

G.I.’s: “Pigs” in Afghanistan?

A sports story gone awry? Today Adam Housely, FNC’s Live Desk co-anchor, seemed to inadvertently tell his audience that American soldiers who stayed in Afghanistan were like pigs–not exactly a compliment in the Muslim. Hopefully, that was not quite the point that he intended to make.

In his seemingly stay-the-course segment on America’s future role in Afghanistan, Adam appeared to reach back to an old coach’s pep talk in his minor league days as an Expo or a Tiger. As he interviewed Jim Phillips, a Heritage Foundation Middle East fellow, about his advice on U.S. involvement, he asked, “Remember the old analogy of the bacon-and-egg breakfast where the chicken…is involved and the pig is committed? Is it time now that we commit fully or pull out fully?”

Perhaps, the author has considered Adam’s analogue a bit too much. Nevertheless, if one were to carry Adam’s argument to its logical conclusion, American G.I.’s there now or new ones in the future would be disdained as unworthy by the largely Muslim population. Or from an American perspective, they would be sacrificing their lives for another’s selfish enjoyment.

Adam, strike one!

Hottie Huddy Reappears

FNC’s Juliet Huddy dumped her frump front last night in her return to Red Eye. Perhaps, responding to the author and her Twitter followers, she jettisoned her “priggish schoolmarm” attire (e.g., Live Desk Tuesday) and her very caz jeans-and-shoes style (a la an earlier RE appearance).* In their stead, the blond beauty re-embraced her hottie look: Juliet sported a sexy short, sleeveless golden dress and matching chic tall, strappy stilettos.

Perhaps, not so ironically, Juliet appeared on Red Eye just hours before her former FOX Morning Show with Mike and Juliet co-star Mike Jerrick made his triumphant return to Fox & Friends Weekend. Apparently, she wanted to remind her fans that she’s back, too. And in rare form.

*https://jakeho.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/bad-juliet-detention/

*http://twitter.com/#search?q=juliethuddy

“Bad” Juliet Detention?

Yesterday Live Desk guest co-host Juliet Huddy looked like a bad girl serving Saturday detention. No, the blonde lovely did not have on the obligatory sweats with flip-flops after a night partying hard in a short black cocktail dress with smart, sexy stilettoes but she came quite close as far as FNC goes. Reporting for duty, she wore a drab over-the-knee gray skirt, black/white housewife heels, black blouse, and buttoned-up dark purplish jacket that she had seemingly borrowed from a priggish schoolmarm. Yikes!

Juliet, FNC viewers know that you’re beautiful. Just don’t let them forget!

O’Reilly No Cronkite?

One culture quiz question too many? Bill O’Reilly appeared to be hoisted on his own petard today.* Or, at least, that of his O’Reilly Factor Culture Quiz queen and Live Desk (LD) co-anchor, Martha MacCallum.

During a LD discussion on who was the most trusted person in America after the death of Walter Cronkite, of lib Forbes columnist and FNC frequent guest Dan Gerstein, MacCallum facetiously asked, “What do you think, Dan? Bill O’Reilly is what you were going to say, right?” Not necessarily towing the network line, Gerstein subtly reminded viewers of O’Reilly’s embarrassing sexual harassment lawsuit by Andrea Mackris,** a former producer: He replied, “We know some things about Bill that we might not have known twenty years ago that affects [sic] people’s trust….I would probably say Oprah.”

Not the answer that MacCallum expected. Nor the one that the cable king and his network probably appreciated.

*LD (07/22/09) – 1:41 p.m. ET
**http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7578-2004Oct28.html

Oops: FNC Reveals Teen Suspect

Now you see Florence: Now you don’t! In its first hour, Happening Now ran the names and the photos of the eight suspects, including the juvenile, in the shooting deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings twice.* (The Billings are the Florida Panhandle couple who were known for the adoption of thirteen specially-challenged children.)** However, in the second hour, all of the suspects were named and shown except for sixteen-year-old*** Florence who was shown as a silhouette with a chyron entitled, “Juvenile.”**** Subsequently, Live Desk and Studio B with Shepard Smith have followed suit.

* HN (06/16/09) – @10:00 a.m. ET and @10:22 a.m. ET

**http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533001,00.html

***http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iTAOQx619OXpq7P0Jcpzqc9Zg-cwD99FJHK00

**** HN (06/16/09) – @11:14 a.m.