The 1/2 Hour News Hour

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Sunday 10:00 PM on FOX News Channel Premiered Feb 18, 2007 Between Seasons

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SHOW REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

The 1/2 Hour News Hour

Show Summary

The 1/2 Hour News Hour, originally named This Just In, is a parody with a comedic view of the news and political world take on politics and news from a conservative view. The format is almost identical to that of the Daily Show on Comedy Central, with the exception of the show using two anchors instead of one.

Previously Aired Episode

Season 1, Episode 11

AIRED ON 7/29/2007

Season 1, Episode 11

Season 2 : Episode 1

Episode Guide

S 2 :  Ep 1 Aired 7/29/07
S 1 :  Ep 10 Aired 7/22/07
S 1 :  Ep 6 Aired 6/3/07
S 1 :  Ep 4 Aired 5/20/07
S 1 :  Ep 3 Aired 5/13/07
See Full Episode Guide

Cast & Crew

Jenn Robertson

Jenn Robertson

Jennifer Lange
Kurt Long

Kurt Long

Kent McNally
Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh

President
Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter

Vice-President
Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller-The Buck Starts Here
See All Cast & Crew

The 1/2 Hour News Hour Listings

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Tuesday
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Thursday
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Fan Reviews (26)

SUBMIT REVIEW

  • An unfunny parody of The Daily Show, whose jokes are comparable to Catholic school abuse.

    1.0
    By plumber-man, Mar 12, 2011
    This is one of the worst shows I've ever seen, but even the newest episodes of Saturday Night Live are executed very well, compared to this piece of word-I-can't use-on-TV.com. I'm not trying to be political, just helping those who cannot help themselves when it comes to channel surfing. Constant barrage of you know, I'm just going to stop, since I don't want to sound like a political commentator, but as someone who loves TV, and can smell out bad shows a mile away. Poor writing, unfunny parodies, and a concept completely wrong for a news channel, which is a fake news show on a (pardon this please) fake news channel. The Daily Show worked because it was on a comedy Channel. this does not. I hope this helped you out well. This is user plumber-man, signing off. oh, and people who think the show is hilarious? That means you do not have a sense of good taste or you need a better cable provider. If you have satellite, get a better provider. And if you disagree with this review, watch a real TV show once in a while. Then you decide.moreless

  • The worst television show of all time.

    1.0
    By colten97, Feb 16, 2011
    According to the elevator pitch, it's The Daily Show for conservatives. A brief segment of the show popped up on YouTube this week, and though it must have been intended as what we blue-state pansies would call an amuse-bouche, it looks more like a determined bid to lower expectations. The mind strains to conceive of political humor that might be less humorous-or, ultimately, less political. Hannity and Colmes trying "Who's on First"? Dennis Kucinich taking sledgehammer in hand to try Gallagher's act? Jimmy Fallon attempting a Thurmond-length filibuster?



    The anchors of the News Hour are parked, "Weekend Update"-style, at a desk on a set evocative of The Colbert Report. He is Kurt Long; she is Jenn Robertson. His jacket bunches at the shoulder, and her hairstylist has acted with malice. The look is in keeping with the ostentatiously humble Fox News aesthetic-a signal that the on-air talent isn't putting on airs, that you're watching something as homey as the leading morning show in Tucson. Kurt leads off the leaked segment thusly: "Illinois Senator Barack Obama admits that as a teenager he sometimes used cocaine. This news sent Obama's approval rating among Democrats plummeting to an all-time low of 99.9 percent." This gets some in-studio laughter, and Kurt forges ahead. "But, in a related story, Senator Obama has just been endorsed for president by former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry."



    It happens that there's an actual joke in there, and The 1/2 Hour News Hour flubs it in eight or nine ways. On purely technical grounds, there's the glitch of the control room flashing its graphic of Barry at least two beats before the host reads his name and also the plain fact that 99.9 is not a funny number. You can nearly feel the missed opportunities-for the line to get pleasurably offensive with drug lingo or to turn back on the teller-whizzing past. Still, the bit seems worthy of the Algonquin Round Table compared with what follows, a mock ad for "BO: Barack Obama magazine," the cover lines of which include, "Should We Even Bother To Hold the 2008 Election?" The laugh track really goes for that one, as will a subset of viewers who-simply tickled to see a TV comedian pandering to them-really couldn't care whether the target gets hit. It happens that such folks would have done better to tune in to the recent episode of The Daily Show that found Jon Stewart goofing on the campaign songs of various Democratic candidates. The fact-based setup found John Edwards bounding across a blue-draped dais to "Our Country," John Mellencamp's populist jingle/Chevy anthem. The Daily Show then presented us with Obama at the same event, rescoring things so that he walked to the podium to the chorus of "Jesus Christ Superstar"-a more incisthan the News Hour's whole bit. For a kicker, they juxtaposed footage of Hillary with some vixenly bars from Kelis: "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard … ."



    The 1/2 Hour News Hour is the brainchild of Joel Surnow, co-creator of 24. "Almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney," Surnow told Variety in November. "The other side hasn't been skewered in a fair and balanced way." Talking points? Fair and balanced? That's not the language of the writers' room. In any case, you couldn't skewer a cube of tofu with material this dull. It will play to the base, maybe, especially if the base hands the remote control to its 12-year-old son. As a humorless liberal, I can handle it. It's the conservatives-the ones with actual gifts for comedy-who ought to be sharpening their knives.moreless

  • WORST SHOW IN TV HISTORY. This show makes Jerry Springer and My Mother the Car look like Shakespeare. I wouldn't make my worst enemy watch it.

    1.0
    By Zxu35iptwye, Jul 28, 2010
    Fox must be desperate to even air this garbage in the first place. If you want to see the opposite of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and SNL, this is the show to watch. They're everything the Half-Hour News Hour isn't. A very bad National Lampoon Radio Hour (which ran a half hour too) ripoff. If I were associated with this show, I'd change my name so nobody would know.



    Worst than a waste of time, you feel dirty watching it. God knows what it is, but it isn't Comedy.



    Absolutely the worst show in Television history. Not funny, not satirical, not original, not parody, but the absolute worst possible combination of flat jokes, bad punchlines and commentary attempting to masquerade as comedy. Completely bereft of any redeeming values, a wasteland of a show in a wasteland of a medium, Television at it's nadir. Watch this show at your own risk. You'll need a drool cup past the first couple of minutes. I needed a long shower after watching the first show. You just feel dirty. Completely without any value whatsoever.moreless

  • Atrocious.

    1.0
    By lare84, Nov 30, 2008
    This show was so pathetic it was not even funny to laugh AT. The jokes were so lame and desperately trying to put a "funny" spin on the conservative agenda the way the Daily Show puts on a comedy "news" show with a liberal slant. The problem is that it just wasn't funny, even accidentally funny. Not even once. And I'm a conservative so this isn't a matter of politics! I desperately wanted this to be a good show to balance out TDS/Colbert Report but it was just awful. The performers were wooden and unfunny and the writing was just terrible. Not one funny moment was to be had in this entire mistake of a show.moreless

  • Very sad, but misguided and talentless people are always good for a few laughs. Just look at American Idol.

    1.0
    By violatedchimp, Oct 30, 2007
    You can't review this show without an outright comparison to the Daily Show which the show is direct response to(the 1/2 hour news hour is a conservative attempt to fight back at the "liberal media" if you weren't already aware). If you're somewhat knowledgeable, you will probably point out that the Daily Show itself was an offshoot of SNL News skits, and you would be right. However, The Daily Show, on the one hand, is an evolution of the genre with consistently well thought out satire combined with the right amount of inane craziness to create a fine comedic show that is able to be funny four times each week. Few other comedies can compete with its consistency. The 1/2 hour news hour, on the other hand, is a step backward (maybe a few) from the SNL skits and is essentially mudslinging by conservatives that resembles a small child calling his classmate a "poopyhead" to masks his tears from years of being made fun of. It is very sad, but if you have a good sense of humor, the sadness is almost humorous as the show creators actually believe that it compares to others of the same genre.



    Beginning with the title which isn't funny or original(it wasn't funny when the joke was done the first time), the show is obviously conceived with little effort, and it believes it can get ratings simply by telling anti-liberal jokes, since Fox News' audience is made up of conservatives who will laugh, because they like anything that makes fun of Hillary Clinton. Hopefully, conservatives will get the chip off their shoulders and realize that The Daily Show makes fun of all politics and that creating a conservative counterpart to a great show isn't needed, since the niche of the genre has no room for a joke of a show. Like I said, this attempt at "payback" is just laughablemoreless
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