CNBC cancels 'The News with Shepard Smith'; former Fox News anchor to depart this month
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
CNBC has canceled Shepard Smith's nightly newscast on the business network, as a move to prioritize business and financial news, the network said Thursday.
Smith joined CNBC more than two years ago and "The News with Shepard Smith debuted in September 2020. Prior to that, he had spent more than 23 years at Fox News Channel, having joined that network at its inception in 1996.
CNBC president KC Sullivan announced the news in an e-mail to employees Thursday, the network reported. Smith will leave CNBC later this month, the site reported, and his hourlong primetime show, "The News with Shepard Smith," will be replaced with markets coverage until a new live business news show is launched next year.
The Lena Horne Theatre: Broadway's first theater named after a Black woman honors trailblazing actress
The best free streaming services, ranked: Freevee, Roku, Tubi and more
“After spending time with many of you and closely reviewing the various aspects of our business, I believe we must prioritize and focus on our core strengths of business news and personal finance,” Sullivan said in the email to employees, CNBC reported. “As a result of this strategic alignment to our core business, we will need to shift some of our priorities and resources and make some difficult decisions.”
Sullivan said Smith's show attracted the richest audience of any evening program on cable news, CNBC reported. But the show averaged 222,000 viewers this year, below its 2021 audience, according to Nielsen. For the last three months of 2020, “The News with Shepard Smith” had 280,000 viewers.
Competing shows such as "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Fox News Channel, and MSNBC's "The ReidOut" with Joy Reid have attracted 3.4 million and 1.3 million, respectively, Nielsen said.
Smith joined CNBC in July 2020 as the network's chief general news anchor, chief breaking general news anchor, and executive editor of his weeknight show.
Prior to that, Smith hosted "Shepard Smith Reporting" from 2013 to 2019 on the Fox News Channel, where he was also chief news anchor and managing editor of the breaking news division.
Smith left Fox News Channel in October 2019. Two months before that, Smith clashed with network host Tucker Carlson over the issue of white supremacy, which Smith called "without question a very serious problem." Carlson had said white supremacy is “not a real problem” in America.
Contributing: Erin Jensen, Sara M. Moniuszko and Charles Trepany, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CNBC cancels Shepard Smith's nightly news show after two years
