• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 19, 2006

Are we short on national morning, gabbing TV shows? Did we need one more?

Fox thinks so. It'll come up with one in January. But it won't be completely national at first, launching on Fox's 25 owned and operated stations--most probably with Fox News Channel's "DaySide" hosts Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick.

Maybe Fox thinks with Katie Couric leaving the morning programming ranks, there is room to move. Surely, there is still some advertising money available in the morning, according to media executives.

This is the second significant programming attempt since Roger Ailes took the throne of chairman of the Fox Stations Group and Fox News Channel. The first was the daily syndicated show "Geraldo at Large," which airs on local stations and is widely promoted by Fox News.

The move also is an attempt to go after popular morning syndicated morning yak shows like "Live with Regis and Kelly." The new show will air in the 9 a.m. hour, which would also put it against the third hour of "The Today Show."

Fox has gone this way before, trying to extend its reach in both early morning and late night. These moves haven't always been successful. For example, Fox tried with the Tom Bergeron-hosted effort with "Fox After Breakfast" in 1996, which came out of FX's "Breakfast Time" that ran from 1994 to 1996.

But now, in a world of diminishing traditional TV programming, in terms of average ratings per show, it would seem to be hard to crack into a new programming daypart. And, while there is plenty of big ad dollars at stake, the CPM growth in almost all traditional TV programming seems to be slowing down over the past few years.

Perhaps five years ago, this would have been a good move for Fox. But in 2006, is it too little too late in programming early?