“Fox & Friends” will need a longer curvy couch.
Lawrence Jones has been named a co-host of the Fox News Channel flagship morning program, in a move that brings the number of on-air personnel to four on weekdays and nods to a growing need at the cable outlet for more diversity on its schedule. Jones will start September 18.
Jones, just 30 years old, has been seen as an up-and-coming personality at the Fox Corp.-backed network, and has most recently anchored a program on the Fox News weekend schedule. He joined Fox News in 2018 and was named an enterprise reporter for the morning show, where he has held forth from various places across the U.S.
His weekend program, “Lawrence Jones Cross Country,” will end, and be replaced by an hour led by Brian Kilmeade. “I am honored to become a part of the cable news legacy Fox News has created with ‘Fox & Friends,’ the very show where I made my first ever national television appearance. It is truly a privilege to inform our audience every day and I can’t wait to do so each morning,” Jones said in a statement.
Fox News has very few people of color leading programs during weekdays. Harris Faulkner anchors two different hours in middays, but most of the other personalities anchoring the network’s shows are white. Meanwhile, both CNN and MSNBC have in recent months added people from a range of different backgrounds to new positions on the schedule.
“Lawrence has his finger on the pulse of what matters to communities across America and his insight has proved invaluable to the ‘Fox & Friends’ audience,” said Gavin Hadden, Fox News’ senior vice president of morning programming, in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming him to our family as he wakes up America alongside our star co-hosts each morning.”
More to come
