FOX Ends Justice with Judge Jeanine Program
NEW YORK — January 12, 2022 — FOX News Channel’s (FNC) The Five has added Jeanine Pirro as full-time show co-host along with a rotation of Harold Ford Jr., Geraldo Rivera, and Jessica Tarlov as the co-hosts for the liberal seat, announced Suzanne Scott, CEO of FOX News Media. The moves will take place effective January 24th.
In making the announcement, Ms. Scott said, “The Five continues to be a beloved show by the American audience. Each of the co-hosts are accomplished and insightful talent with diverse opinions and terrific chemistry who will certainly help drive this ensemble program going forward.”
Pirro, Ford, Rivera and Tarlov will co-host alongside powerhouse homegrown stars Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino and Jesse Watters. The Five has ruled the timeslot for a decade as the number one show in both cable and all of cable news at 5 PM/ET. In the most recent 4th Quarter of 2021, The Five dominated with 3.3 million total viewers and second overall in the 25-54 demo with 481,000 — the first time ever in cable news history that a non-primetime program achieved this milestone for a full quarter. The smash hit also topped all daytime and primetime programming on CNN and MSNBC for the entire year of 2021, delivering the second largest audience in cable news with 2.9 million viewers and 423,000 in the 25-54 demo, again making it the only non-primetime show to rank among the top five programs in the genre while notching its second highest ranking in the show’s history.
Judge Pirro has substitute co-hosted The Five since 2020. She joined the network in 2006 as a legal analyst and began hosting her weekend program Justice with Judge Jeanine in 2011, which has been the top-rated program in its Saturday evening 9 PM/ET time slot throughout its 11-year run. Pirro will relinquish hosting the program effective January 22, 2022 to meet the demands of being elevated to a live five-day a week show, and a new weekend line-up replacing both Justice and Watters’ World (vacated by Jesse Watters moving to weeknights at 7 PM/ET) will be announced at a later date. She will continue hosting Castles USA on FOX News Media’s streaming service FOX Nation, where she dives into the rich history of iconic castles all around the country.
Prior to joining FNC, Pirro was the host of a syndicated weekday court show distributed by Warner Brothers, for which she won an Emmy award. Her legal career spans over 30 years, during which she was elected Westchester County District Attorney for three consecutive terms. She was the first woman to prosecute murder cases and started the first domestic violence unit in a prosecutor’s office in the country as Westchester’s assistant district attorney. In 1990, Pirro was elected as the first woman to serve as a Westchester County Court judge. She was appointed by then-Governor George Pataki to chair the New York State Commission on Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board in 1997, whose research assisted in passing increased protection for domestic violence victims.
Newly minted liberal co-host Harold Ford Jr. joined FOX News Media as a contributor in 2021 and guest co-hosted The Five throughout the last year. Ford served as a former democrat member of Congress for five terms from 1997–2007, representing Tennessee’s ninth congressional district with stints on the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Financial Services. In addition to The Five, Ford is currently the vice chairman and executive vice president of PNC Bank’s Corporate and Institutional banking business and is the chairman and CEO of Empowerment & Inclusion Capital Corporation, a SPAC with the purpose-driven mission of acquiring diverse businesses or those focused on promoting economic and societal inclusion. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Pennsylvania.
Geraldo Rivera will also serve as a rotating liberal co-host while continuing to helm COPS: All Access on FOX Nation, a behind-the-scenes look at each episode examining the risk that law enforcement officers face every day. He will also continue appearing on various programs as the correspondent-at-large. Rivera joined the network in 2001 as a war correspondent and has received more than 170 journalism awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, three national and seven local Emmys, two Columbia-Dupont awards and two Scripps Howard Journalism Awards. His journalism career spans more than 50 years having worked for WABC-TV in New York as well as ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and launching his own syndicated talk show.
Liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov joined the network as a contributor in 2017 and has appeared on numerous programs, including The Five after serving as a frequent guest on various FNC shows since 2014. She currently serves as the Vice President of Research and Consumer Insight for Bustle Digital Group (BDG) and will return from maternity leave to begin the co-hosting rotation in March. Prior to this, she was a senior strategist with Schoen Consulting, where she advised domestic and international clients on messaging strategies for more than five years and worked as a democratic pollster. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in History, Tarlov holds two master’s degrees in Political Science and Public Policy as well as a Ph.D. in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in basic cable, FNC has been the most watched television news channel for nearly 20 consecutive years. According to Nielsen Media Research, FNC currently attracts more than 50% of the cable news viewing audience. Notably, a 2021 Nielsen/MRI Fusion report showed the network garners the largest independent audience in cable news, while FNC’s primetime hours deliver the second largest liberal audience in cable news. Additionally, a 2021 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index report stated FOX News leads the news industry in both brand loyalty, engagement, and expectations. Owned by FOX Corp, FNC is available in 80 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top 10 programs in the genre.
