Fox News will add another host to the curvy couch at “Fox & Friends.”
Enterprise reporter and commentator Lawrence Jones will join the conservative-leaning news channel’s morning show starting Monday, the network announced Thursday. Jones has also hosted a weekend show, “Cross Country,” for the past year.
Jones, 30, will join the current team of Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade. He will also be the only Black male to co-host a daily program on a major cable news outlet. He will also be the youngest host on cable news.
“Fox & Friends” is the most-watched morning show in cable news and host changes have been rare. The last personnel move was when Earhardt joined the program in 2016 after the departure of Gretchen Carlson.
Jones, who grew up in Garland, Texas, is a libertarian. He first received national attention in 2015 when, as a contributor for the conservative channel the Blaze, he helped raise money for an Indiana pizza shop that was forced to close after its owners refused to cater a gay wedding.
Fox News hired Jones in 2018 and executives have been grooming him for a larger role since he arrived. As a roving correspondent, he traveled throughout the country to report on various stories for the network, often focusing on violent crime. He also has been a fill-in host on several Fox News prime-time programs.
Jones had to do a mea culpa after his reporting on the May 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Jones, who was on the scene, denounced an Associated Press report that the Uvalde police were slow in their response to the incident where 19 children and two adults were killed.
Jones called the report “simply ridiculous,” citing his own police sources. Several days later, when it was apparent that AP was correct, Jones acknowledged that Uvalde authorities “dropped the ball” in their response to the shooting.
Jones has also done specials examining the state of race relations from the perspectives of civil rights activists, religious leaders and law enforcement officials. He hosted a special on the streaming service Fox Nation that featured an interview with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace about his career and activism in the Black Lives Matter movement.
