Former Fox News Anchor to Host Onion TV Show on IFC

Local area online faux news program to make television debut in January.

The Onion News Network – the online video arm of satirical newspaper of past, present, and future, The Onion – announced in March it would make the transition to TV. The Independent Film Channel said it would develop an ONN series as part of a new, late-night line-up of comedy programming. Said series will make its debut on January 21 at 10PM EST.

ONN on IFC will showcase “the network’s top-rated prime time show, a hyperactive graphics and sound effect-laden news explosion called FactZone with Brooke Alvarez, hosted by the world’s most respected news-reader” (played by real-life, former Fox News anchor Suzanne Sena).

Co-host Tucker Hope (played by Todd Alan Crain, who recently hosted a special edition of Jeopardy where humans played against HAL 9000) will join Alvarez at her news desk as the duo throws to a number of in-studio and in-the-field segments from a handful of seasoned ONN reporters, including:

• Today Now! – Co-hosts Jim Haggerty and Tracy Gill try out new recipes and find out what’s killing America’s children on the Onion News Network’s top-rated morning show.
• The Cressbeckler Stance with Joad Cressbeckler
  – Angry political commentator Joad Cressbeckler opines on everything from returning to the gold standard to skinning a raccoon.
• Star Fix – The lovely Madison Daly gives celebrity-addicted Americans their desperately needed dose of entertainment news.
• Cross Examination with Shelby Cross – Former prosecutor Shelby Cross reports on the latest legal cases, determining who’s guilty without the need for pesky evidence.
• Eye On America – The Onion News Network taps one of their 12,408 local affiliates for a glimpse at what’s happening with the little people out there in the fly-over states.

ONN on IFC is meant to give viewers a glimpse of the most popular programs of The Onion’s non-existant 24-hour cable news network that doesn’t report to more than 100 million households worldwide.

It’ll be interesting to see how the fake news fares in the ratings when it’s up against your local, 10PM nightly news. Executive producers Will Graham, Julie Smith and Jim Biederman, as well as IFC’s Debbie DeMontreux, Christine Lubrano, Jennifer Caserta and Evan Shapiro are hoping it will do better than that other Newz program.