Fox stations launching ‘Battleground’ brand with newsletter plus TV program

Fox-owned stations will begin airing a multiplatform swing state brand ahead of the 2024 election.

Titled “Battleground: The Swing States,” the offering starts as an email newsletter May 21, 2024 before becoming a weekly TV show June 10, 2024.

It will then become a five-day-a-week offering Aug. 12, 2024.

Content will focus on the races in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Fox doesn’t own stations in Nevada or North Carolina, so has made arrangements for the show to air in Charlotte, North Carolina, CW affiliate WCCB, to at least cover that region. 

The show is being produced by Fox First Run, the syndication and distribution company for Fox Entertainment and Fox Television Stations.

S.E. Cupp, a conservative analyst who has had runs and appearances on Fox, CNN and MSNBC, has been selected to host. It was not immediately clear how the panels joining Cupp might be filled out to achieve some balance in perspectives, though Fox’s overall right-leaning tilt combined with a host of the same mindset seem to suggest which way it might lean.

The show will be executive-produced Neal Kendall with Fox stations in the key states plus WCCB also contributing content from on the ground.

The show will run 30 minutes. It was not immediately clear where the show would be placed on the schedule, but it is undoubtedly a key part of Fox’s local station group’s strategy to capitalize on political advertising dollars aired inside of content it produces itself, and therefore retains all ad revenue.

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With the show’s announcement, Fox First Run also released a show logo and title card, which features the show title split into two words stacked on top of each other.

A partial star shape above this is formed mostly with horizontal bars along with some angled accents.

President Joe Biden, shown in profile, is appropriately placed on the left, while Donald Trump’s photo is on the right. 

Below, there is what appears to be a pile of soil or rock that is presumably a literal reference to the “ground” in “Battleground” that artfully has portions peeking up over the “The Swing States” subtitle.

The condensed sans serif and semi-abstract star motif ends up looking a bit like a mix between NBCUniversal’s Decision 2024 logo and CBS’s “America Decides” branding.