Glenn Beck to quit Fox, launch cable channel, insiders claim
[HMG Celebrity News] – Since first sharing his rather singular view of the world on CNN in 2006, Glenn Beck has become one of the most polarizing figures on television. He switched to Fox News in 2008, but his future is now at a crossroads.
In September 2009, 47-year old Beck’s nightly sermons of forthcoming doom drew the highest ratings of any Fox pundit – beating his rivals on CNN, MSNBC and CNN-HLN combined. But those days are over. His audience is now thinning – rapidly – and reports say Glenn will quit Fox in December when his contract runs out.
But what then?
At present he hosts a syndicated radio show – ‘Insider Extreme’ – weekday mornings, and does his Fox show in the evenings. But he also has an online subscription video channel, and pundits say that will become his new pulpit.
His other options are to form his own cable channel – as Oprah did – or to take over part of an existing channel’s air-time, as Martha Stewart did with Hallmark. But that gets expensive and more than two-dozen advertisers have blacklisted Glenn since he called President Obama a racist in 2009.
It’s even possible Glenn could stay at Fox, but asked whether they plan to renew his contract a Fox spokesman said “It’s not up until December” and refused further comment…which looks bad.
But Glenn is clearly keeping his options open;
“Roger Ailes has built the most important voice in America today — Fox News — and it is an honor to do my show there every night,” he recently said in a statement. “I have no intention of doing the show I’m doing now on Fox anywhere else.”
But insiders say Beck has been mulling his own channel for more than a year, he just can’t openly admit it or make any plans until his contract is up. But his web service has to be tempting – It costs $9.95 a month to experience his virtual ramblings, and that’s believed to have earned Glenn over $4 million last year – Twice as much as he gets from Fox News.
His fans have already followed him to a news / opinion web site, and his live shows all sold out. So a web channel or his own cable station could be a success. Or he could create a hybrid of both – like Oprah did. But Glenn is not Oprah – not by a long way, so his next leap of ego faith could also be into a bankrupting void.
What do you think he’ll do? His own cable station, web-casts, or a mixture of both? He stirs opinions in everyone, so let’s hear yours…
Source: NY Times
