Shepard Smith's Show Dropped

CNBC told employees Thursday that it's canceling The News With Shepard Smith to devote more of its schedule to business and financial coverage. Starting in early 2023, a business news program will take over the 7pm Eastern time slot, per the Hollywood Reporter, though Smith's program will end this month. The new show's anchors and title were not announced. "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 US and around the world," network President KC Sullivan told the staff in a memo. "The quality journalism Shep and his team delivered each weeknight was exemplary and not lost on us or our 7pm audience."

The News debuted in fall 2020 after Smith had left Fox News, replacing Shark Tank reruns, per the Washington Post. CNBC's ratings for the time slot doubled, but the program still didn't give Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN a run for their money in that hour. Sullivan said the network will look for jobs the displaced staff members could fill, but AP reports Smith is leaving CNBC. His show has been averaging 222,000 viewers in 2022, a small drop from last year, according to Nielsen figures. In the same slot, Jesse Walters drew 3.4 million viewers on Fox News on Tuesday, while Joy Reid had 1.3 million on MSNBC. (More Shepard Smith stories.)