Nearly a year after sudden exit, Shepard Smith returns to TV

NEW YORK (AP) — Two weeks shy of a year after abruptly quitting Fox News Channel with a declaration that “truth will always matter,” Shepard Smith returns to television this week at his unexpected new home.

He begins a general interest nightly newscast Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the financial network CNBC, putting him back in the time slot he loved before Fox moved him to the afternoon seven years ago.

The 56-year-old newsman, a Fox News original who joined that network at its start in 1996, says he's relishing the fresh start.

“We're going to come out and do just the news,” he said. “We're not planning to do any analysis in our news hour. We're going to have journalists, reporters, sound and video. We're going to have newsmakers and experts ... but no pundits. We're going to leave the opinion to others. It's exactly what I've been wanting to do. It's what I've been working at for 30 years.”

He'll work out of a new studio that's been built for him at CNBC's New Jersey headquarters by three crews that kept construction going 24 hours a day over eight weeks.

Smith left more questions than answers upon his Fox exit, leaving others to speculate about why. His 3 p.m. newscast stood out at a network where opinion is king, and sometimes he challenged statements made by the network's prime-time hosts.

Figuratively speaking, he didn't smash windows on the way out and still doesn't.

“I built a career at Fox News and I have some deep friendships, ones that I'm going to keep forever,” he said. “But simply, I just felt it was the right time to leave. I asked them if I could and they eventually allowed me to do that.”

At Fox, “their business model is working very well for them,” he said. “Their opinion people state their opinions and they draw big audiences. I have no problem with that.”

Smith's 2013 removal from the evening schedule, where the biggest cable news audiences reside, was an early sign that the balance was tipping toward more opinion — and not just at Fox. It was announced that he would be on call to anchor in prime-time during big stories, but there proved little interest in pre-empting the stars.

His 3 p.m. newscast was influential, even if unpopular with many core Fox viewers, and the network's willingness to pay its personalities well no doubt eased hurt feelings.

He left Fox two weeks after an ugly incident with Tucker Carlson, who brought on a guest who said Fox's Andrew Napolitano was a “fool” for analysis offered on Smith's show. Smith said on the air that Carlson's attack was repugnant.

Asked about it, Smith said that “I had felt like it was time for a new challenge for a long time. Nothing about any talent, any on-air people at that place, pushed me out the door.”