‘Watters’ moves to Studio B, following ‘FNF,’ ‘Faulkner’ and ‘The Five’

Fox’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” became the latest of the channel’s shows to move out of Studio M.

“Primetime,” which debuted in January 2022, had been using various parts of Studio M, with home base for the show set up in front of the video chandelier lowered to just above the first floor.

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Watters would also stand in front of the space’s primary video wall and journey up to the mezzanine level for select segments.

Now, however, Watters has moved to Studio B, one of the network’s longtime windowed studios that line the exterior of the first floor of its headquarters on Avenue of the Americas in New York.

In this space, he’s mainly set up in front of a background created by rolling the space’s mobile LED panel units into one area of the space, with a slightly different take on his normal background shown behind him.

Like “Watters,” the other regularly scheduled shows that utilized Studio M also moved to Studio B in phases starting in May 2024, in preparation for updates to the space over the summer of 2024.

“Fox & Friends” and “The Faulkner Focus” both moved May 28, 2024, the day after Memorial Day. “The Five” moved back on May 13, 2024.

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Studio B has been outfitted with a curved video wall with a stepped wall. There is also a corner area featuring windows to the outside, which has been most prominently used by “Fox & Friends.” So far the windows have remained covered, with the mobile LED units filling in as simulated windows.

Another space features a flat video wall installation that can be complemented with two tracking panel units to create a sort of trapezoid-shaped alcove.

During Watters’ viewer text segment, one of the tracking units was moved down toward the curved video wall space, where Watters was standing.

Additional wild LED video wall segments can be moved around the space, and are notably used on the far sides of “The Five” setup, where they sport different graphics than the larger array that features the show’s normal angular and star motif backdrop.

The far camera left one of these, which typically is behind Jeanine Pirro, creates a somewhat similar look to her background in Studio M, which is a portion of a row of wall-mounted screens. 

The far camera right position of “The Five,” typically occupied by Greg Gutfeld, has a control room-inspired background, much like the one that typically appeared behind his one-shot in Studio M, though in that case it was a small booth-like cubical that doubles as a workspace with a video array mounted on the wall above it that would typically showcase a control room loop.

It’s not clear how long the shows will be in Studio B, or if some may remain there after Studio M reopens later in the year, though “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy referred to it as a “summer share” during the show’s first outing in the space.

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It’s also not clear what changes are being made in Studio M, though since it dates back to 2016 (when it was known as Studio F), so it’s not surprisingly the network is slating it for some updates, even if it’s mostly upgrades to on-set tech.

For several years, the network has also deployed both the real video chandelier and a virtual recreation of it during special event coverage. It has also experimented with leveraging extended reality technology in the space, digitally replacing the wall of windows with a “portal” into a virtual space.