Facebook’s video platform is set to host new shows featuring some of the biggest names in cable news, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Fox News’s Shepard Smith and Univision’s Jorge Ramos.
The programs on Facebook Watch will be backed by the social media giant, but the networks involved “will have full editorial control of their shows,” Facebook says.
CNN announced Wednesday it will offer up “Full Circle” with Cooper at 6:25 p.m. on Facebook Watch. The program will be filmed out of Cooper’s CNN studio in New York.
{mosads}”Cooper will interview the most significant names in news, media and entertainment, and bring the audience directly into the conversation through live polls and integrated conversations,” the network announcement reads.
“Fox News Update,” meanwhile, will be geared towards providing breaking news and reporting the big stories of the day. Smith will handle its anchoring duties on weekday afternoons, and Carley Shimkus will provide headlines on weekday mornings while “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Abby Huntsman will take one weekend morning per week.
Univision will feature Jorge Ramos as the host “Real America,” which will have the longtime anchor travel the country to talk to immigrants from various cities, towns and backgrounds. The network will also offer a Spanish-speaking newscast every day at noon titled “Noticiero Univision Edición Digital.”
ABC, Mic and ATTN: are also set to have programming on Facebook Watch, which debuted in 2017.
“This first lineup of funded shows includes news publishers from broadcast to digital native, national and local,” said Campbell Scott, who serves as Facebook’s head of global news partnerships and was a one-time anchor for CNN and NBC.
“The shows will be hosted by award-winning journalists, as well as new faces, and the formats will vary from a mix of daily briefings, weekly deep dives, and live breaking news coverage. They’ll debut later this summer, and we’ll announce additional shows in the coming weeks. We will work closely with our publisher partners to experiment with these different formats to understand what works, and they will have full editorial control of their shows.”