The Fox News Channel, which has been seeking a new format for the 5 p.m. hour, will place a rotating series of personalities in the time slot beginning next week, including the conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.
Ms. Ingraham, one of the country’s most popular radio hosts, frequently fills in for Bill O’Reilly, and Fox executives appear to be grooming her as a new talent for the network. Other people will also receive trial runs in the time slot.
Fox News Channel is expected to announce the changes later Tuesday. In February the cable network replaced John Gibson, the longtime host of the 5 p.m. hour, with Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, two younger anchors who also host a morning show. Mr. Hemmer and Ms. Kelly’s afternoon show, “America’s Election HQ,” covered the primary season. But now, with the party nominees known and two months until the political conventions, there may not be quite as much election news to cover.
The 5 p.m. hour, a transition time between the afternoon and evening on cable news, has seen increased competition in recent months. Fox News, normally the top-rated network in every hour, last week placed third in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet. Last week, as the primary season ended, CNN averaged 235,000 viewers in the demographic, while MSNBC saw 218,000 and Fox saw 198,000.
For the full month of May, “America’s Election HQ” topped CNN and MSNBC, averaging 200,000 demographic viewers compared to 194,000 for CNN and 176,000 for MSNBC.
In another schedule change, the network will expand the 1 p.m. show “The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum” to two hours and add a co-host, Trace Gallagher. Fox has not determined the new role for E.D. Hill, the current 2 p.m. host.
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