Fox News named Jesse Watters the permanent host of its 7 p.m. EST show Monday.
Jesse Watters Primetime will debut Jan. 24, the company said in a statement. Watters will remain a co-host of The Five, and Fox News will announce a replacement for his Saturday show, Watters’ World, later this year.
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“Jesse’s versatility and hosting acumen has grown exponentially over the last five years, and he has developed a deep connection to the audience through two hit shows The Five and Watters’ World,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said. “We look forward to watching him expand his connection even further.”
For the past year, the 7 p.m. weekday time slot, Fox News Prime-Time, has been anchored by a rotating group of Fox News personalities. Watters was among the slew of anchors that guest-hosted the show.
“I’m thrilled to take on this new challenge and am grateful for the opportunity,” Watters said, according to Fox News.
The time slot was previously anchored by Martha MacCallum and was largely seen as a relatively straight news show. Fox moved The Story with Martha MacCallum to its 3 p.m. hour in a programming shake-up following the 2020 presidential election. It announced that change on Jan. 11, 2021.
Watters joined the company in 2002 as a production assistant. He rose to prominence through his work as a correspondent for The O’Reilly Factor. During his time as a correspondent, he hosted “Watters’ World” segments, in which he would conduct street interviews.
In 2017, Fox News gave Watters his Saturday night show and made him a co-anchor of The Five.
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The company said his Watters’ World Saturday show was the most-watched show in its time slot during its tenure, with an average of 1.9 million viewers.
During the fourth quarter of 2021, The Five topped Tucker Carlson Tonight for total average viewers, with an average of 3.3 million a day. Fox News said this was the first time a show outside of prime time finished a quarter as the top cable news show.
