Katie Pavlich was a rising star at Fox News. Now she’s in primetime for NewsNation

The conservative commentator Katie Pavlich didn’t want to give anything away before her debut as a primetime host for NewsNation, a cable news channel that launched in 2020 with the goal of attracting politically independent viewers.

Sure, she told the Guardian, she would leverage her relationship the Trump administration to try to book key decision-makers on her new 10pm show, Katie Pavlich Tonight, which launched on Monday.

“I think we’ll be able to get some pretty significant administration officials, cabinet-level members,” Pavlich, 37, said. “We’re going to shoot for the stars and see where they fall – kind of thing.”

It didn’t take long for her connections to come through. On Tuesday night, the show featured an interview with Donald Trump, who had previously called Pavlich’s work on Fox News “terrific”, “fantastic” and “great” in posts on social media.

Pavlich, who guest-hosted on Fox’s The Five and filled in for primetime hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham during her 13 years as as contributor, will now be in charge of her own Washington DC-based program.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Was it a difficult decision to leave Fox News? Was it something you had planned to do?

I wouldn’t say it was a plan to leave Fox. I loved working there. I loved my colleagues. I still do love my colleagues, still have wonderful relationships with my Fox colleagues. Really developed an amazing rapport with the audience, covered a number of major world events with them, and was so grateful for all of the opportunity that I had with them through the years.

And it just was a matter of, there wasn’t a real estate for me available at the time when NewsNation made their offer. And so this was an amazing opportunity for me to have my own show, which I’ve been working towards. When I went to broadcast journalism school, this was eventually a goal on the vision board.

Is it fair to say you would have wanted to host a show for Fox, or have a full-time hosting role?

Absolutely. Absolutely … At the time that I had to make a decision, NewsNation had this opportunity for me, and so I took it.

How are you feeling about leaving your longtime home and starting somewhere new?

Well, I’m really excited about NewsNation and I’m thrilled to be there and to be working with a brand new team, and especially in this very creative capacity where we’re building a show from the ground up. It’s really exciting and I’m learning a lot and working really closely with folks to figure out what our focus is and how we want to be different and how we’re going to really work to bring a different point of view to the network every night.

But as I just said, I love Fox, I love my colleagues, and we all work in media, so I look forward to seeing them again.

Are you hoping to bring along some of your Fox viewers?

I would say I’m looking forward to bringing over Katie Pavlich viewers, and also breaking into new viewership and introducing myself to the NewsNation audience and the digital audience that comes with that. So I’m looking forward to reintroducing myself to people who maybe haven’t been as tuned in, and looking forward to introducing myself to new people.

Do you consider yourself more of a commentator or a journalist?

[During] my work over the last 16 years in journalism media, I’ve covered a number of different topics, events, huge stories, and my approach is always facts first and opinion second. And I am not afraid to say that I’m a conservative who views the world from a politically conservative place, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a journalist and be a reporter and look at a situation and circumstance based on the facts and then analyze it from there. So I actually think it is pretty straightforward.

And I think my political leanings is a more honest way of approaching the news, and reporting the news, because an audience knows exactly where I’m coming from. And I think NewsNation, they’ve developed a network that is for all Americans, and that includes millions of Americans that think like me. So I think that my approach and style and record of that is a really good fit for them.

Do you think you will be able to book some senior members of the Trump administration?

Yeah, I think so. I think we’ll be able to get some pretty significant administration officials, cabinet-level members. Yeah, I definitely think so. I was in Washington DC during the first Trump administration, so this is the second rodeo, so to speak.

Being based here will allow me to really work on providing that access to the people who are watching … We’re going to shoot for the stars and see where they fall – kind of thing. We’re going to work really hard to get people – the top names and newsmakers that they want to hear from. You can always ask, right?

Are you looking forward to the challenge of hosting your own show?

I always like to challenge myself and do things that are intellectually stimulating and to step up to that next level… I think it’s going to be really a good opportunity to flex my muscles.

Do you plan to call out President Trump when you disagree with things he does?

Yeah, there’ll certainly be times where I don’t agree with everything the administration is doing. I think that they could maybe do less letters on the White House saying the Rose Garden or the Oval Office. I disagree with that. I’m just joking.

But yeah, there’ll be big policy disagreements, and when there are, we’ll talk about them and debate them in a factual, intellectual way.

You’ve said that CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss has done “a pretty good job”. Do you think she’s been covered unfairly?

Yeah, I think they’ve been too hard on her. I think that she was hired for a reason and changes have been made. I like what she’s doing with [CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil], sending him out – I believe he was in Detroit [last] week for President Trump’s speech – which is important, for people to get out of their studios sometimes, and talk to people where they are.

And she hasn’t been there that long. So I think just giving her some time to just re-balance and to tell stories from more angles, not fewer, and from more than one perspective is important.