| Alt Name: | Fox News Primetime (2021–2022) |
| Image Alt: | Gray text "Jesse Watters" in uppercase with closed apertures and bolded atop a black box with white text containing "Primetime" in uppercase, illuminating sun above the I of "primetime" |
| Genre: | Current affairs program |
| Presenter: | Jesse Watters |
| Country: | United States |
| Location: | New York City |
| Camera: | Multi-camera |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes (with commercials) |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Network: | Fox News |
| Last Aired: | present |
Jesse Watters Primetime, known as Fox News Primetime from 2021 until 2022, is an American conservative talk show and current affairs program hosted by The Five co-host and political commentator Jesse Watters. The program airs live weekdays at 8 p.m. ET and has been a part of FNC's lineup since January 24, 2022.[1]
Jesse Watters Primetime comprises an opening segment and several news topics; such topics are presented in a populist format.[2] The show features guests such as political commentators The show features guests such as political commentator Clay Travis,[3] Candace Owens,[4] and Dan Bongino.[5] In one segment, Watters interviewed Doreen Ford, a moderator of the subreddit r/antiwork. Watters repeatedly mocked Ford, creating a publicity crisis for the subreddit.[6] In response, Ford was removed as a moderator and r/antiwork shut down for several days.[7] Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Watters said that the bank was "a woke Biden bank" and that the company held Lesbian Visibility Day and Pride Month seminars.[8]
Jesse Watters Primetime features a segment entitled "Mom Texts", in which Watters reads text messages his mother—noted to be a liberal—has sent him.[9] The segment continues an identical segment on The Five.[10] The show closes out the week with a game segment called "Sink or Swim", where two Fox news personalities join the show and take turns answering questions about different headlines throughout the week. Jesse Watters Primetime continues The O'Reilly Factors "Watters' World" segments with Watters' assistant, Johnny Belisario, conducting man-on-the-street interviews.
Jesse Waters Primetime features a design akin to an extreme sports show. The show is taped from Studio M at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The studio features a "video chandelier" with a heavy duty lift system. Watters' desk is position in front of the video chandelier; rather than displaying graphics on the screen, graphics are overlaid on top of the screen. An alternative shot uses a video wall.[11]
Fill in hosts for the show include Will Cain, Kayleigh McEnany, Jeanine Pirro, Pete Hegseth, Rachel Campos-Duffy, and Katie Pavlich.
In 2003, Watters became involved in the production of The O'Reilly Factor. He became known on the program for man-on-the-street interviews in a segment entitled, "Watters' World".[12] "Watters' World" was promoted to a monthly special in November 2015 through the 2016 presidential election,[13] before being promoted to a weekly program in January 2017.[14] In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, Fox News began a shift in its programming, giving greater prominence to opinion shows. In January 2021, Fox News shifted The Story with Martha MacCallum earlier in the day; MacCallum's show was identified as news programming.[15] During the transition, Fox News filled the slot with a rotation of personalities under the Fox News Primetime banner, including Maria Bartiromo, Katie Pavlich, and Trey Gowdy.[16] Watters, a co-host of The Five, was selected to be Fox News Primetimes permanent host in January 2022, forgoing Watters' World for the position.[17] In the show's debut episode on January 24, Watters garnered an average of 3.8 million viewers, beating out Tucker Carlson Tonight. The following day, Watters averaged 3.6 million viewers.[2] By the end of 2022, Jesse Watters Primetime was the third most watched cable news show, behind Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Five, according to Adweek.[18]
On April 24, 2023, Fox News announced that Tucker Carlson had "agreed to part ways" with the network.[19] Carlson's departure resulted in a downturn in the network's ratings as the timeslot was filled by a rotation of personalities under the Fox News Tonight branding.[20] On June 26, Fox News announced that Watters would take over Carlson's timeslot alongside other changes to the network's programming schedule,[21] following speculation that he would take the timeslot.[22] The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld previously stated to The Wall Street Journal that he would no longer appear on The Five or host Gutfeld! if he were to take Carlson's timeslot.[23]
On July 15, 2024, the show notched its highest rated episode to date, bringing in 5.5 million viewers. This was programs first episode since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, as well as its first day broadcasting at the 2024 Republican National Convention. [24]
California governor Gavin Newsom blamed Watters' comments for the attack on Paul Pelosi. Watters rebuked Newsom by stating that he was responsible for the attack by not deporting the perpetrator David DePape.[25]
Watters's engagement in the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory has attracted controversy. Following the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting, Watters claimed that drag shows were designed to change the mainstream opinion of "sex with children", among other sexual activities.[26] During a November 2022 episode, Watters pointed to a statistic claiming more unmarried women vote Democratic, resulting in controversy from single women, who pointed to an episode of The Five in which he claimed to have flattened his co-worker's tires just to ask her on a date.[27] Speaking about homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area, Watters called homeless people "bags of flesh mutating on the sidewalk" and—in a remark considered Islamophobic—he referred to San Francisco as a "fentanyl caliphate".[28] Similarly, he posed that homeless people choose to be homeless in a February 2022 episode.[29]
Following the death of Elizabeth II, Watters brought up president Joe Biden's comment comparing Elizabeth II to his mother at the 2021 G7 summit and claimed that former president Donald Trump and Elizabeth II "never had a better time". Historian Brooks D. Simpson called Watters' statements "abject desperation"; other figures who criticized him include actress Heather Thomas, senior advisor A. J. Delgado, and author Ellen Hopkins.[30]