The first pilot aired on February 18, 2007, and the second on March 4, 2007. Fox News later purchased 13 more episodes of the show, which started airing on May 13, 2007. The show was subsequently cancelled, and the final episode aired on September 23, 2007.[1]
Cast and crew of the show included Kurt Long (playing co-anchor Kurt McNally), Jennifer Robertson (playing co-anchor Jennifer Lange), Manny Coto, and Ned Rice.[2] Longtime Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller was a regular contributor to the program with his "The Buck Starts Here" segment.[3]
This was the first comedy show created by Joel Surnow, a producer best known for his success with the serialized action show 24. His description of the show initially was, "The Daily Show for conservatives",[2] later expanding upon that description by stating, "You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed. There really is nothing out there for those who want satire that tilts right."[4]
Conspiracy Corner – segments where a guest presents generally accepted information about a topic, and that information is treated as far-fetched by the host, who holds stereotypical left-wing views.
Guy White: Closet Conservative — a cartoon featuring a conservative man working in an office in which everyone else is a liberal caricature.
The broadcast of the pilot episode, which aired on Sunday, February 18, 2007, at 10 p.m., was watched by 1,478,000 viewers.[5] The rebroadcast of the same episode one week later was watched by 971,000 people.[6] The second episode on Sunday, March 4, received similar ratings with 1,384,000 viewers.[7]
Publications gave the show's initial two episodes historically poor reviews.[8]
The Chicago Tribune said, "The humor is so predictable and so stale that it fails to produce any laughs",[9] while The Philadelphia Inquirer commented that "The 1/2 Hour News Hour is slow torture all by itself."[10]Metacritic's television division, which produces composite scores based on prominent reviewers' opinions of television pilots, other episodes, and/or DVD releases,[11] gave The Half Hour News Hour pilots a score of 12 out of 100,[12] making it the lowest-rated television production ever reviewed on the site.[13] Despite the pilots' poor reviews, the show continued to lead its time slot in the ratings among cable news networks.[5] The show's lead over its competition shrank considerably, however, with its August 5, 2007, airing.
The show's cancellation was announced on August 14, 2007, and its last episode aired on September 23, 2007. At the time, Bill Shine, the Senior Vice President of programming at Fox News, stated that "we are considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs."[1]
