Fox launches new morning show in January

Fox will launch a new hour-long morning show in January hosted by current Fox News Channel anchors Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy, the network announced Tuesday.

The unnamed program will air at 9 a.m. and compete with the third hour of "Today" as well as "Live with Regis and Kelly." News featured on the program will be mostly entertainment-driven stories, unless a major story develops, and will be covered by Fox News Channel reporters.

Dennis Swanson, president of operations for Fox television stations, says four hours of local news will precede the show in most markets and hopefully be an effective lead-in for the show.

After the recent departures of Katie Couric from "Today" and Charles Gibson from "Good Morning America," viewers could be looking for something new in morning programming, Swanson says.

The 25 Fox-owned stations in the U.S. have confirmed they will be airing the program in January, while the network will be encouraging other affiliates to show it in the meantime.