CNBC has decided to end Shepard Smith’s nightly news show as it refocuses on evening programming on business and financial news. The last episode of The News With Shepard Smith is airing later on in November, its replacement hasn’t yet been announced. Smith originally joined CNBC in 2020 after a tenure at Fox News. He left Fox in 2019, and started hosting a straight ahead news program for CNBC. The result was a boost in numbers, doubling the outlet’s previous audience, however, those numbers never reached the numbers that the big three cable news channels: Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN had.
CNBC President KC Sullivan stated in a memo to staff on Thursday that, “The News set out on a bold mission of providing non-partisan, fact-based reporting on the most important stories of the day in the U.S. and around the world, The quality journalism Shep and his team delivered each weeknight was exemplary and not lost on us or our 7 p.m. audience. The News increased CNBC’s 7 p.m. viewership average and attracted the most affluent audience of any primetime cable news program. At a time when misinformation and disinformation is rampant, The News succeeded in providing audiences with the clearest understanding of the facts.”
CNBC has previously attempted to keep its daytime audience around after the financial markets closed through shows such as The Profit and Shark Tank. The evening program that will replace The News With Sheppard Smith will be part of an effort to “prioritize and focus on our core strengths of business news and personal finance, This is key in our efforts to continue building on our position as the number one global business news brand and to connect with new audiences of all kinds interested in their financial future.” Sullivan wrote.
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