Growing up, few hosts on Fox News had more airtime than Greta Van Susteren. The veteran journalist would often be responsible for true crime topics, including the murders of Natalee Holloway JonBenét Ramsey.
Veteran news anchor Greta Van Susteren will join Newsmax to host a weeknight show from Washington, D.C., the cable news network announced Monday.
The hour-long show, “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” is set to premiere on June 14, and lead the network’s weeknight lineup.
A lawyer by training, Van Susteren came to national prominence as a legal analyst providing insight on the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
She went on to host shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Recently she hosted a Sunday morning show with the Gray television network and served as a contributor to Voice of America.
Van Susteren intends to devote her new hour to stories that cater to her strengths in legal analysis and foreign travel, but knows she needs to get a middle-American audience to pay attention. “Why should anyone in Appleton, Wisconsin, care?” she asks, referring to her hometown.
Van Susteren has been delving into hot topics since the days of the O.J. Simpson trial. Her work as a legal analyst for CNN on that very event led to her hosting two different programs there. In 2002, she moved to Fox News Channel, where she anchored a primetime program and then one at 7 p.m. Her arrival at MSNBC in 2017 was touted by Rachel Maddow, but executives felt her early-evening program trailed its rivals on other news outlets.
What does she think of how cable news has changed since she left? She sees significantly more opinion programming and thinks the recent pandemic has kept anchors hunkered down in their studios rather than getting out and seeing life around the nation. “It makes a difference,” she says, when an anchor can see a debate or issue up close and on the ground. “I’m curious and I love the stories. I’m fascinated by it and I think that sells to viewers.”
She struck what she believes is an unusual deal with Newsmax. She gets to decide what should be on her show. “I’m 100% independent. If you don’t like the show, don’t you call Chris Ruddy,” she says. “You call me. I’ll take total blame.”
Newsmax rose to national prominence during the 2020 election, as President Donald Trump touted the network on social media — even as he expressed anger at Fox News for being the first to predict Joe Biden would likely win the key state of Arizona.
Rather weird. They didn’t stick with her because her hour trailed the other stations? Doesn’t that station always trail the other stations, except very lately I’ve read for CNN??? If they’d gone for O’Reilly, I’m betting he would have taken a chunk of his audience with him, but they were expecting miracles from anyone less than a super star!