How Fox News is ‘moving to Milwaukee’ during the week of the RNC
In less than a month, thousands of delegates, speakers and members of the media will descend on Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, held July 15-18.
Fox News, the network that drew the most viewers during the RNC in 2020, is moving multiple daytime and primetime programs to Milwaukee — “almost our full line-up of shows.”
“The network is moving to Milwaukee for the week. It’s a big undertaking — the housing and the collaboration with other networks,” Scott Wilder, Fox News’ executive vice president of production and operations, said in an interview.
Weeks later, Fox News will do the same for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“It takes a lot of collaboration to move this amount of people there, house them, feed them, and make great television,” he said.
There’s a lot of preparation that goes into covering a national convention, including coordinating with a local station about parking space, getting equipment in Fiserv Forum before the security perimeter goes up, and making day trips to Milwaukee to stay on top of move-in deadlines.
“Every network has to run cable all over that building, and they have to run it back to a central point,” Wilder said.
That central point is a gravel lot between Panther Arena and Fiserv Forum that becomes “engineering headquarters.” Media can start accessing Fiserv on June 24.
More:The RNC has moved into Fiserv Forum. Is the Bucks Pro Shop, atrium still open?
More:What to know about Secret Service’s final planning for the RNC in Milwaukee
“The goal is that all of the work is complete before the Secret Service puts in their perimeter,” Wilder said. “Because once the Secret Service perimeter is up, obviously everything becomes more difficult,” like bringing in equipment and scenic elements.
In addition to broadcasting from a booth in the bowl of the arena, Fox News will operate out of Gather at Deer District — in the entertainment zone outside Fiserv Forum, the home of the Milwaukee Bucks. The network also operated from Gather during the first Republican presidential debate in August.
“Traditionally, what we’ve done in conventions in the past, is we go outside of the perimeter and get our own unilateral space,” Wilder said.
But modern arenas offer spaces like the Deer District “that’s really inside the perimeter. We did take over one of those spaces, and we’ll have some programming coming from within that space.”
No other major television networks, such as ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, shared plans with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about any outside venues they plan to use for their operations during the RNC.
In 2020, far more viewers watched the RNC on Fox News than any other network. About 7.8 million viewers watched RNC coverage on Fox News. ABC and NBC ranked next with about 2.1 million viewers each, according to Nielsen ratings reported by Adweek. Viewership of the DNC was more evenly split, though MSNBC and CNN led in viewership numbers.
More:GOP convention will draw global news coverage. Milwaukee could benefit from that focus
This year, viewers should expect Milwaukee itself to be incorporated in coverage, but Wilder noted it’s more about how the candidates are out campaigning and the political topics of the day. Shows that are traveling on the road will still “maintain their identity” that viewers are comfortable with.
“We plan on leaning in and highlighting where we are. The parties select these cities, obviously we don’t. I think we all know there’s a reason why the parties select them,” Wilder said. “I think we’re going to kind of leave that to the parties, and we will go cover it, and highlight the city where appropriate.”
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