Former Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren has signed on with Gray Television as a national political analyst.
“After more than 20 years on cable news platforms, I am thrilled to move to broadcast news and especially excited to join Gray Television’s journalists all across the country,” Van Susteren said in a statement Thursday. “It’s a journalist’s dream to be part of a growing media company so focused on delivering quality news in local markets big and small through trusted, local institutions like Gray’s television stations.”
Van Susteren suddenly left Fox News in 2016 after 14 years with the company because “Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years.” According to Van Susteren’s husband and agent John Coale, “someone came to our house and delivered two letters” from the network. He told the New York Times that the message was that Van Susteren was out of a job. The move came after Van Susteren said she planned to invoke her exit clause, amid discussions to negotiate a better conditions in her contract.
“There’s so much chaos” at Fox, Coale said. “It’s very hard to work there.”
After joining MSNBC in 2017, Van Susteren separated with the network after less than six months on the job.
“I am out at MSNBC,” she tweeted in June 2017.
Coale said the move came as a surprise, even though ratings for her 6 p.m. time slot were low.
“They didn’t want her anymore,” Coale told the New York Times after MSNBC notified his wife. “We’re in kind of shock.”
According to Gray Television, which recently acquired Raycom Media for $3.6 billion, Van Susteren will provide analysis on national and international politics. Gray also announced two nationally syndicated shows with Van Susteren are in the works.
“We’re thrilled to have someone with Greta’s depth of experience join our team,” said Hilton Howell Jr., Gray chairman and CEO. “Our stations and our viewers will benefit from Greta’s no-nonsense, straightforward approach to complex political issues.”
Gray Television a publicly traded company founded in 1946 and based out of Atlanta, owns or operates 145 stations in the U.S. within 91 TV markets. The company received approval in December for the $3.6 billion acquisition of Raycom Media, making Gray Television the third-largest owner of local television stations in the U.S.
