Fox News family celebrates 25 year anniversary, talks origins of channel
Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and more of your Fox News favorites discuss the 25-year anniversary exclusively on the 'Fox News Channel 25th Anniversary Special'
Fox News will reach its 25-year anniversary in the business, which began on Oct. 7, 1996, and to celebrate the occasion, the network will begin with a Sunday night special "FOX News Channel: 25 Years."
The special takes a look back at the earliest days of Fox News, when there were screeches, "technical difficulties," and some scrambling to get the news out with the limited staff. It will take viewers on the journey of how Fox News started to becoming the #1 cable network in the country. The one-hour program will feature interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and flashbacks from the network’s stars to celebrate the network’s historic launch.
"The appetite for news, particularly news that explains to people how it affects them, I really believe is expanding enormously," Rupert Murdoch said when the 24-hour network was founded.
‘FOX NEWS CHANNEL: 25 YEARS' WILL KICK OFF SPECIAL COVERAGE OF NETWORK'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY
During the special Fox News anchors and reporters detail their stories of joining Fox and what the first days of the cable network were like.
"I was hired for the Atlanta bureau. But there was no Atlanta bureau … [it] started in my apartment with a fax machine and a cell phone," "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier said.
Lauren Green, who was the first on-air person hired for Fox News, said before the studios were ready she practiced behind a plywood desk.
Primetime anchor Sean Hannity said his first shows "were atrocious … humiliating [and] embarrassing."
Anchor Tucker Carlson said he happened to have been at Fox the first day it started. He was working as a reporter who was assigned to the campaign of 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole, who was making an appearance on the channel.
"I watched him do an interview on this thing called Fox News. I remember thinking, ‘That’s not going to work.'" Carlson then erupts in laughter and says, "One of the many things I've been wrong about."
According to Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney, from day one Fox's messaging focused on allowing the news of the day – including finance – to resonate with the common man through eliminating jargon, and other barriers.
The entire "FOX News Channel: 25 Years" special can be streamed on Fox Nation.
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