Bartiromo brings business news to Sunday

David Bauder of the Associated Press writes about Fox Business Network‘s Maria Bartiromo and her new show debuting Sunday on Fox News.

Bauder writes, “Original business programming is scarce on Sundays, even on networks that cater to that audience. CNBC and Fox Business Network both air infomercials for most of the daytime hours.

“The Sunday Fox News slot was an important enticement for Bartiromo to make the jump to Fox, where she also hosts a two-hour weekday morning show on the business network. For two decades, Bartiromo was one of the main attractions at CNBC, the ‘Money Honey’ whose breathless reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange defined a go-go era.

“On its face, the move to Fox Business lowers her visibility since FBN has struggled to establish itself as a competitor. Bartiromo’s ‘Opening Bell’ has averaged 54,000 viewers a day since she joined last month, compared with the 191,000 viewers that CNBC gets in the same time slot, the Nielsen company said.

“A Sunday show on the Fox News Channel, meanwhile, offers a chance to reach a much larger audience. Fox is averaging 1.1 million viewers each week for the news and medical shows that ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ will be displacing, more than the combined viewership for a CNN show with Fareed Zakaria and an MSNBC program with Melissa Harris-Perry in the same time slot.”

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