Hello, I’m Joel Surnow, co-creator and executive producer of the TV show 24. I’m also co-creator and executive producer of a brand new right-leaning parody of the evening news on the FOX News Channel called The Half Hour News Hour.

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I’ve been asked to write a few words about what it’s like to produce a conservative show in Hollywood. A show that critics are already calling “the funniest show in the history of the FOX News Channel, not counting Geraldo.” I really think that says it all. Now here’s more information on The Half Hour News Hour in a simple, easy-to-use, question-and-answer format.


Why did you decide to create this show?

Two reasons: One, I felt that in the interest of equal time there was a real need for sharp, intelligent political satire on TV from a conservative perspective to counterbalance all the really good political satire already on TV that comes from a left-of-center perspective. And two, I bet a friend of mine I could create a TV show that would make Michael Moore spontaneously burst into flames.


What is the show like?

It’s a “Weekend Update”/Daily Show/The McLaughlin Group hybrid, which makes The Half Hour News Hour the first hybrid ever endorsed by the FOX News Channel, its management, or its parent company, Halliburton.


How is The Half-Hour News Hour different from other conservative comedy shows on television?

It’s different in the sense that there aren’t any other conservative comedy shows on television.


What kind of reaction have you gotten since the premiere?

Some of the feedback has been pretty awful: “Your shows sucks! You’re all evil! You should fire all your writers! Conservatives just aren’t funny! This is the worst thing that’s ever been on television!” Those were the notes we got from the network. Everybody else seems to be mildly amused.


Will people watch a conservative version of The Daily Show?

O.K., full disclosure here: I’m a huge Daily Show fan because that show has been tremendously successful in delivering topical, edgy, laugh-out-loud funny takes on our political and social landscape. Let’s face it, The Daily Show has made a vast, positive contribution to the ongoing political conversation in this country as well as to the cause of civil discourse in general. My hat’s off to them.


How influential has Jon Stewart been?

Who?


Will you make fun of conservatives like President Bush?

Absolutely. There are no sacred cows on Half Hour News Hour. Even now our crack research staff is conducting an excruciatingly detailed analysis of George W. Bush’s entire life history, searching for some embarrassing incident, tendency, affectation, idiosyncrasy, personal flaw or foible, however trivial, that might provide some grist for our comedy mill. If we discover anything even remotely funny about President Bush, his administration, his personal life, or any of his policies, we’ll use it as a joke premise in the show- and that’s a promise.


Your first two shows have a lot of jokes about global warming. Will global-warming activists be offended?

Yes, probably. Especially when they figure out that they’re contributing to global warming just by watching The Half Hour News Hour.


Why do your first two shows begin with segments starring Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter?

Long story short: Michael Richards and Mel Gibson turned us down.