F&F’s Hasselbeck Out: Who’s In?

“I’m just waiting on a Friend!” Today, FNC announced that Fox & Friends co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck is on her way out and that she is expected to exit the early morn cable news champ in late December according to “Variety” magazine. Elisabeth, F&F fans barely knew you!

Only two years ago (September 16, 2013), sexy Survivor celeb and The View’s erstwhile conservative co-anchor Elisabeth became the belle of the ball, replacing flirty 1989 Miss America beauty, Gretchen Carlson, who never really seemed to quite click with her male co-hosts, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade. In contrast, Elisabeth was the sweet married hottie that put her boys on the curvy couch on notice from the start that she considered them brothers.

To the author who has followed F&F since the days of E. D. Donahey (a/k/a E. D. Hill), Elisabeth seemed like such a sweet, sincere soul that he could not easily snark or snipe at her–even when she became mawkish and maudlin. Nevertheless, she seemed like an odd choice for F&F‘s then EVP of Programming Bill Shine over the much beloved Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Alisyn Camerota who oft held court from the center seat on the weekend curvy couch when Gretchen was away. Of course, the long-time F&F fan was not overly surprised since Shine had similarly overlooked E. D.’s obvious successor, the smart, sexy, and charismatic F&FW co-anchor Kiran Chetry.

Perhaps, Shine will bring back comely Kiran: But, it is somewhat doubtful in light of the manner that Kiran was reportedly dismissed. If he is not ready to bring Kiran back into the fold, perchance, he will consider Aly who was always there for him on F&F First, F&F Weekend, and F&F weekday (as a sub, especially during the big news special editions). If Shine wants to stay with the Fox stable, he may want to consider Greek goddess Nicole Petallides who brings sexy back on FBN:AM on a daily basis (as F&FF once did).

[Author’s aside: Best of luck, Elisabeth! Hopefully, you will enjoy much joy, peace, success with the fam in the present and in your career in the future.]

Kilmeade & Doocy Fails: Ravens’ Rice Jests

Anna Kooiman: “This is so shocking!” Today, Fox & Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy both committed major fails this morning in ill-conceived jests as to domestic abuse. After a segment on now erstwhile Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice‘s apparent elevator assault on his then fiancee (vid via TMZ), Brian joked, “I think the message is [to] ‘take the stairs.'”* As Anna chuckled uncomfortably, Steve rejoined, “The message is when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera.”

Today, normally surefooted Brian and Steve weighed into an area where any angel should fear to tread, i.e., domestic abuse and a cheap laugh. Obviously, assaulting a female is no joke and never should be treated as such. Unfortunately, Brian tried to add some levity after the horrific video and it fell fatefully flat: To make matters worse, Steve weighed in and was mired in the process.

For this longtime viewer of the show (dating back to when whilom F&F co-host E. D. Hill was E. D. Donahey), the aforementioned moment was definitely cringe-inducing. Even though the author assuredly does not believe that either Brian or Steve think that domestic abuse is a laughing matter, they should have known better this morning than to not let their condemnation of it be patently obvious and severe. Unfortunately, in the author’s view, Brian did not help matters by giving NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell virtual absolution for his bone-headed decision to give Ray Rice only a two-game suspension for his alleged assault–by commenting that Goodell had owned up to his “huge mistake” and had increased future penalties for domestic abuse to a six-game suspension for the first offense and a life-time ban for a second offense: Perchance, if Brian were not the FNC sports guy and former Fox News anchor Jane Skinner were not Goodell’s wife, Brian might have been less charitable in his assessment.

Happily, according to the Washington Post, “Fox & Friends will address [the] Ray Rice ‘stairs’ comments on Tuesday’s show.” And they should–because it is the right thing to do. And, for the cynical, if they do not, Fox News critics will use Brian and Steve’s ill-advised remarks to slam them and their network mercilessly henceforth.

[Author’s aside: Re the subtitle, it is guest co-host Anna Kooiman‘s assessment of the alleged assault before Brian and Steve’s errant extemporaneous utterances.]

*Fox & Friends – 09/08/14 (@ 8:32 a.m. ET).