David Bauder of the Associated Press examines the return of Shepard Smith to television with a nightly news show on CNBC.
Bauder writes, “CNBC offers financial news during the day and general interest programs that appeal to an affluent audience at night, things like “Shark Tank,” “Jay Leno’s Garage” and “Secret Lives of the Super Rich.” The network needed something to serve as a bridge between the day and night identities, and thought a smart, straight newscast could do the trick, he said.
“‘We really clicked at that first meeting,’ Hoffman said. ‘It was one of those easy conversations. It wasn’t a sales pitch. We didn’t talk about what we wanted him to do. I just talked about what we wanted to do. We had a nice chemistry and our interests seemed to be aligned. I would say he left the meeting intrigued and then it moved from there.’
“That was their last face-to-face meeting. Negotiations were done via Zoom.
“Smith said he heard great ideas from other networks. ‘It’s just that this one fit better,’ he said.
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