It begins at 6:00 a.m.Eastern Time Zone with the latestFox News Live headlines and news of the morning and continues with a variety of segments including current events, interviews, updates of news stories with correspondents, political analysis from the hosts, and entertainment segments.[6][7]
Fox & Friends evolved fromFox X-press, Fox News Channel's original morning news program.
After theSeptember 11 attacks, an additional hour was added to the beginning of the weekday show, but branded as a separate show calledFox & Friends First. It was the first Fox News show to air live for the day, starting at 6:00 a.m. It was discontinued on July 13, 2008, and replaced with an additional hour ofFox & Friends.[8] TheFox & Friends First title was reintroduced on March 5, 2012, also as a separate show airing one hour before the main three-hour program, but using a separate slate of rotating anchors.[9]
On May 1, 2025, veteran co-host Steve Doocy announced that he will be taking a step back from hosting the flagship program and will now be working three days per week from Florida, focusing on special projects for the show.[10]
The "Summer Concert Series" features a live music concert in the Fox News Plaza each Friday from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.[13][14]
"So Sue Me" is a segment in which Peter Johnson Jr. (an appellate and trial lawyer) offers his perspective on current events with legal implications.[15]
The New York Times has reported the show is one of the most successful on the network.[16] After the arrival ofElisabeth Hasselbeck in September 2013, the show climbed 23 percent in total viewers compared to its average for the third quarter of 2013, and 22 percent in the key 25–54 news demo. For Hasselbeck's first four weeks on the show,Fox & Friends averaged 1.226 million total viewers, up from the 1.058 that the show averaged for the third quarter of the year.[17][18]
In February 2017, the program's average ratings increased to around 1.7 million viewers, fueled by the recent inauguration of Republican candidateDonald Trump as president.[19] In the first quarter of 2025 it was reported that the show attracted an average of 715,000 viewers forFox & Friends First and 1.5 million viewers in the 6–9 AM weekday hours. WhileFox & Friends Weekend averaged 1.5 million viewers during the same period.[20]
In 2012,The New York Times wrote thatFox & Friends "has become a powerful platform for some of the most strident attacks on President Obama".[16] The program has provided a platform forBarack Obama religion conspiracy theories and, in May 2012, aired a 4-minute video attacking Obama's record as president.[16] The video was widely criticized as a political attack ad masquerading as journalism;[21][22]Time magazine television criticJames Poniewozik wrote: "It's hard to imagine a more over-the-top parody of Fox News raw-meat-hurling, fear-stoking, base-pleasing agitprop."[23] In response, a Fox News executive vice-president 'disavowed' the video, blaming an associate producer and that the video 'slipped by' senior managers at the network.[24] Fox News stated that the show was entertainment and "does not pretend to be straight news."[16]
U.S. presidentDonald Trump is a regular viewer ofFox & Friends, and praised the program for its favorable coverage of his presidency during his first term. Critics noted that Trump often tweeted about stories onFox & Friends as they aired, creating a "feedback loop" when the stories were subsequently discussed as national issues because they were mentioned by Trump on social media.[25][26][27][28][29][30]
Trump was a frequent guest onFox & Friends before his presidency. In 2018, Fox News announced that he would appear on the show to offer commentary every Monday.[31]
On April 26, 2018, Trump was interviewed by phone onFox & Friends in a segment that stretched to nearly half an hour, and discussed several recent topics and controversies surrounding himself and his government.[32][33] Trump said that he might interfere with theSpecial Counsel investigation,[34] acknowledged that lawyerMichael Cohen had represented Trump in theStormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal,[35] and said that he had gotten a card and flowers forMelania Trump, his wife, whose birthday was the same day.[36]
