\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFox News is really starting to get religion.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Fox Corp. division may best be known for the conservative hosts who fill its primetime schedule each weekday evening with what detractors would say is fire-and-brimstone oratory, but in the streaming wars, the company is working to make a name for itself with content tied to subjects of faith and spirituality. And executives hope a burgeoning \u201cFox Faith\u201d vertical will lure more subscribers to its Fox Nation subscription service and bigger audiences to other parts of the company.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen it comes to faith-based programming, \u201cI think there is an insatiable appetite among a very passionate audience that is underserved,\u201d says Jason Klarman, chief digital and marketing officer at Fox News Media, during a recent interview.<\/p>\n
\n\tFox News Media is expected to announce Wednesday that it will launch a 52-episode podcast series, \u201cThe Life of Jesus Podcast,\u201d starting Sunday, November 30, as part of a licensing deal with Gulfstream Studios. \u201cFox & Friends\u201d co-host Ainsley Earhardt will introduce each half-hour episode, guiding listeners through the life and teachings of Christ. Among the actors voicing characters in the series are \u00a0Kristen Bell, who plays Mary Magdalene; Sean Astin, who plays Matthew; Neal McDonough, who plays Jesus; Brian Cox, who represents \u00a0the Voice of God; Malcolm McDowell, who portrays Caiaphas; John Rhys-Davies, who narrates; and Julia Ormond, who voices Mary, Mother of God.<\/p>\n
\n\tFox News Media will release the episodes dates tied to the Christian calendar. The first 13 episodes debut to mark the start of Advent. Thirteen more will be released December 21, during the run-up to Christmas. Thirteen more will surface on February 15, in time for Lent. And the final batch of 13 appear March 29, on Palm Sunday. <\/p>\n
\n\tEarhardt, who may have helped spark the development of \u201cFox Faith\u201d with an early Fox Nation show focused on Bible study, believes more people are eager for content that helps them grapple with the difficult news stories and information overload that have become part of daily life. She says she has often looked for sermons on YouTube tied to raising children, a subject in which she has strong interest, but likes the idea of being able to turn to a library of well-produced programming.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI just am excited that more people are open to talking about faith,\u201d she says, noting that her grandmother devoted significant time to Bible study, but may not have found a lot of people willing to discuss it with her on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the number of U.S. residents who say religion is important to their daily lives represents a minority of the overall populace, the group has been growing. Pew Research found in February of this year that 31% of U.S. adults of U.S. indicated religion was gaining influence in American life. The figure represents the highest the organization has seen in 15 years. In February of 2024, a similar Pew survey found just 18% of U.S. adults felt religion was gaining influence in life in the United States.<\/p>\n
\n\tFox News is simply acting on what it learns from consumer response, says Klarman. Executives noticed that Earhardt\u2019s Bible study series got a lift around the holiday season, and noted robust sales for books from Fox News personalities like Shannon Bream, who has examined the Bible in three different efforts she has authored. \u201cData tells us what they like and what they are doing, and we execute against it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFaith-based programming may hold more appeal in a world that depends more heavily on social media, suggests Matti Leshem, the creator of the Fox Nation docuseries \u201cSaints,\u201d which delves into the lives of John the Baptist, Thomas Becket and others.\u00a0 The average person spends more hours with media outlets that spur comparisons with other people, he says, and often contain information that is not entirely accurate. Little wonder, Leshem says, that in a \u201cfractured, divided world\u201d people are seeking inspiration. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe new Fox News Media podcast launches following the debut of the program\u2019s second season. The first cycle of the show was the \u201cbest performing series on Fox Nation,\u201d says Klarman. The series has the \u201cbest engagement\u201d of viewers and the \u201cbest acquisition\u201d of subscribers, the executive adds. Fox News doesn\u2019t regularly disclose the total subscription base to Fox Nation, but Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in March that the outlet had an estimated 2 million to 2.5 million subscribers.<\/p>\n
\n\tKey to the success of \u201cSaints\u201d is its broader appeal, says Leshem, a producer who c the series with the backing of director Martin Scorsese. \u00a0Stories of the lives of John the Baptist and Saint Sebastien and others who have been portrayed are filled with \u201cmoral heroism,\u201d says Leshem. \u201cI think that people are drawn to that whether you\u2019re an atheist or a believer or someone in between.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese are really inspiring stories,\u201d he adds. \u201cThis is a very hard-hitting show, a very dramatic show. There\u2019s nothing very Sunday school about it at all.\u201d\u00a0 With more than 10,000 saints, he says, \u201cI could do this for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFox News Media is looking for other areas of growth, says Klarman. Among them is a Fox News Wine Shop that specializes in wines made in the U.S., some of them cultivated by veterans. A \u201ctasty Tempranillo\u201d offered from Texas may not be something consumed by any of the Saints portrayed in the documentary series, but Fox News likely has already identified a certain segment of its audience that has a thirst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fox News is really starting to get religion. The Fox Corp. division may best be known for the conservative hosts who fill its primetime schedule each weekday evening with what detractors would say is fire-and-brimstone oratory, but in the streaming wars, the company is working to make a name for itself with content tied to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[4702,2621,150,17147,8123,18685],"class_list":{"0":"post-34411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bets","9":"tag-fox","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-programming","12":"tag-religious","13":"tag-themes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}