Thursday, November 13, 2003

Don't Mess with Fox

Haha. Once CNBC cans him, Miller will have nowhere to go:

Miller's abrupt departure from Fox News, where he had provided weekly essays for "Hannity & Colmes" also was a dangerous move - for Miller, that is. FNC has never been particularly shy about blasting defectors, and when Miller called late one afternoon last month to say he had accepted the CNBC offer, Fox executives were stunned. They quickly iced the last seven essays he was under contract to write (Miller says there were only three left), and neither party has spoken since.

"Frankly, when we deal with talent we usually have better conversations before someone leaves," says Kevin Magee, FNC's vice president of programming. "I don't think he'll have as many viewers as he had on "Hannity & Colmes," but we'll figure out some way to fill those three minutes and move on." Miller, too, is eager to move on and make up. He said he took the CNBC offer (which originated from NBC Entertainment chief Jeff Zucker) because he had "never heard" from Fox about whether the network wanted to keep him beyond this year. "I figured there was no interest there."