Openly gay news anchor Shepard Smith, formerly of Fox News, has been announced to join CNBC as a prime-time news anchor at 7 pm ET weeknights beginning this fall.
After 23 years at Fox News Channel, Smith abruptly announced his departure from the conservative news outlet last October after being warned of criticizing both Donald Trump and his Fox News ally, Tucker Carlson.
Smith became an early target of Donald Trump’s at Fox News when the news anchor refused to flatter or pull punches regarding the Trump administration.
In August 2019, just two months before Smith left Fox News, Trump tweeted, “Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith.”
At the time of his exit from Fox, he was the only openly gay anchor at the cable news channel.
Along with his new show, to be called “The News with Shepard Smith,” the veteran newsman will assume the titles of chief general news anchor and chief breaking general news anchor.
The newscast, which will be called “The News with Shepard Smith,” is set to launch in the fall. Smith’s title will be chief general news anchor and chief breaking general news anchor. He held similar titles at Fox News.
In the past, CNBC’s prime-time schedule has been home to reality fare like “The Profit” and “Shark Tank.”
In a statement released by CNBC, Smith said, “I am honored to continue to pursue the truth, both for CNBC’s loyal viewers and for those who have been following my reporting for decades in good times and in bad.”
Although CNBC generally focuses on financial/economic news, Dan Colarusso, CNBC’s senior vice president of business news, said the new show will reach across news boundaries “to tell rich, deeply reported stories across the entire landscape of global news.”
“We aim to deliver a nightly program that, in some small way, looks for the signal in all the noise,” CNBC Chairman Mark Hoffman said in a press release. “We’re thrilled that Shep, who’s built a career on an honest fight to find and report the facts, will continue his pursuit of the truth at CNBC.”
Smith casually came out during an interview with HuffPost in October 2016.
