Former White House Economic advisor Larry Kudlow, himself a former business show co-host (CNBC's Kudlow & Cramer), is joining Fox Business Network as a contributor. 

He will host his own weekday program in addition to providing "expert financial analysis on domestic and global affairs across all Fox News Media platforms."

"Fox News Media was among the first news organizations in the country to understand the critical importance of the relationship between Washington and Wall Street," said Kudlow. "I’ve long admired their insightful coverage and am excited to join many of my former colleagues now at FBN, creating a show that speaks to the real issues truly impacting Americans."

Kudlow was assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council starting in 2018.

Maria Bartiromo will host a documentary special airing on Fox Business Channel that will re-air on Fox News Channel. 

The special, America vs. China, will air May 9 at 7 p.m. on FBN and repeat Sunday, May 10, at 10 p.m. on FNC. A director's cut (extended) version of the doc will also be available on FNC's streaming service, Fox Nation, May 10 starting at 10 p.m. 

Bartiromo, global markets editor, looks at China's handling of the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as its broader strategic goals as an economic and military force. 

Bartiromo got access to a number of top Trump Administration officials--Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro, as well as tech investor Peter Thiel, Revolution Chairman Steve Case and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the last something of a one-stop Hill expert with experience on numerous relevant committees. Cotton is a member of the Intelligence Committee chairs and the Banking Committee's Economic Policy Subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee's Air Land Power Subcommittee. 

The President has recently been highly critical of China's handling of the pandemic outbreak and, longer term, has imposed tariffs on the country to attempt to level the trading playing field.

Fox Business Network has snagged billionaire investor and internet video pioneer Mark Cuban for a virtual town hall April 23 at 2 p.m. 

Cuban has been named to President Trump's sports advisory panel on planning the reopening of the economy, or what the President has called "the path forward toward a future of unparalleled American prosperity." 

The hour special will be hosted by Making Money's Charles Payne and will focus on the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuban is also owner of the Dallas Mavericks, one of the high-profile sports franchises whose season was laid low by the virus. 

The town hall will be held via remote video conference and viewers can submit video questions for consideration.

Fox Business Network will host a virtual town hall featuring White House Economic advisor Larry Kudlow, himself a former business show co-host (CNBC's Kudlow & Cramer). 

America Works Together airs at 2 p.m. (daytime is arguably the new prime time access given a stay-at-home workforce) on Thursday, April 9.  

But Kudlow will be answering the questions this time on issues including the COVID-19 stimulus bills and their impact on small businesses. 

Interviewing Kudlow will be Making Money host Charles Payne, joined by a panel including Fox Business contributor Brian Brenberg, Small Business advisor Gene Marks and UBS advisor Tracy Byrners. 

Audience members will participate via remote video conference. Viewers can also submit questions to investedinyou@foxbusiness.com for possible inclusion. 

On a related note, FBN launched a COVID-19-related public service announcement (PSA) featuring Payne as well as FBN hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Liz Claman and others.

Fox Business Network is remaking and expanding its primetime lineup.

The net said Tuesday (Sept. 18) it will be moving Trish Regan to 8 p.m. to host a new show, Trish Regan Primetime, about the intersection of policy and Wall Street. That bumps Kennedy Live to 9 p.m. and means the the business news network will have live programming until 10 p.m.

"[W]e are excited to extend our live programming through 10PM, ensuring all of our viewers get the most robust and comprehensive look at how the political economy affects their everyday lives," said FBN President Brian Jones.

Regan's new show will feature a rotating group of experts looking at how Washington policy affects the economy, markets and personal finance.

The show debuts Oct. 15, but it would have had plenty to talk about Tuesday as the Trump Administration announced $200 billion in tariffs, a trade policy that has tech companies nervous about its impact on their business and consumers.

As part of the expansion, Making Money moves from 6 p.m. to the 2 p.m. slot that had been the home of Regan's The Intelligence Report. The Evening Edit With Elizabeth McDonald moves to 6 p.m., but Lou Dobbs will remain in his 7 p.m. slot.

When Brian Jones was officially named as Fox Business Network’s first-ever president in May, he inherited a channel on a major ratings roll. The financial news outlet posted a record second quarter in total viewers and increased its audience year-to-year in the quarter by 12%. More importantly, Fox Business has beaten its chief rival, CNBC, in total viewers across the business day (9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.) for a network-record three consecutive quarters, dating back to third-quarter 2016.

Jones, who was senior vice president of operations when Fox Business launched in 2007 and most recently served as the network’s executive VP, spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the network’s ratings fortunes, as well as the overall cable news business.

Related: 10 TV News Titans [subscription required]

MCN:You are taking over a network that’s on quite a ratings climb. How would you define the Fox Business brand?
Brian Jones: It’s an exciting time. We have a fantastic staff and to see them finally get the recognition that they deserve after 10 hard years of slogging through this is great. We have some fantastic young journalists, and some of the most experienced business journalists that have ever been put together [on a team]. We talk to people, not at people, and we try to put these very important economic concepts into relatable, approachable terms that people understand. We’re talking about health care, tax reform and jobs. You know, these are things that impact every American regardless of economic strata in this country. So we try to give them information that they can use to either keep more of the money that they have or make more money for their families.

MCN:What is it about this current environment that has allowed Fox Business to build its year-to-year ratings growth?
BJ: I think people found the network. We launched it [in 2007] right at the start of the financial crisis. Back during the internet boom, you couldn’t talk to anybody that wasn’t involved in the stock market, but that all went away. … At the same time, the whole media landscape was either changing or fragmenting. So then what happens is that people need actionable information to protect themselves and protect their families. Then, because of those two [Republican primary] debates [telecast by FBN], viewers found in us a network that they liked, and they saw that we have the deepest bench in economic business that’s ever been put together — Maria Bartiromo, Stuart Varney, Neil Cavuto and Lou Dobbs. The lineup is replete with experience in context and analysis so that people can make actionable decisions.

MCN:How do you view today’s cable news landscape?
BJ: I think it’s just an important time for news. I think newspapers — and especially the digital side of newspapers — are growing because people need information. This is a very volatile time, and important issues like health care, taxes, jobs and technology are affecting and will affect you and your kids and your family’s future, and you want the information to put that in context so that you can make the right decision.

MCN:Having said that, what challenges does Fox Business faces as it continues growing?
BJ: I think we’ll be able to solidify our business day because that’s where we do the best journalism and the best coverage of these important issues. Our next challenge, and it’s always been a challenge, is reaching younger viewers. I’ve got kids in their 20s, and they don’t watch business news. They don’t yet understand the importance of this. So it’s getting this information in the younger people’s hands so that they understand when they start getting married and buy houses and buy cars and start planning for their futures that there’s a home for them to go to get information to make those decisions.

MCN:So exactly how do you reach a millennial viewer that’s not necessarily depending on linear cable news networks for information?
BJ: From a business perspective, we’re making sure that our product is available on any platform. I want the person walking down the street with a smartphone or in a home with a tablet or on the [over-the-top] platforms that are emerging to be able to access our content. We are platform-neutral, and as the industry changes we have to make sure that people are aware it’s out there.

We want to make sure that the information on this network is something that helps the entire family. So we choose topics and then put that information in context so that a younger person who is trying to just get going in their first job or their first serious relationship knows what banking means and what the new laws mean to them and how it’s going to affect their first paycheck.

MCN:Recently the network suspended on-air host Charles Payne amid sexual harassment allegations. Where does the network stand with regard to Mr. Payne?
BJ: I can’t talk to employee situations. It is still under investigation and we’ll wait for the outcome of that investigation.

MCN:Have the allegations and the investigation tainted the Fox Business brand at all?
BJ: No, I mean we are focusing on the mission that I just outlined.

Fox Business Network is giving Charles Payne his own show in the 6 p.m. weekday time slot.

Growing from Payne’s regular segments throughout Fox Business Network’s market hours, Making Money with Charles Payne will debut on June 2.

Capitalizing on Payne’s more than 30 years’ experience as a broker and analyst, the program will explore investment avenues based on the day’s top stories. Each night, he will be joined by a panel of business and market experts to debate the headlines, provide viewers with an end-of-day wrap-up, and provide an insider’s look at tomorrow’s money makers.  

“Charles has an incredible talent for identifying growth sectors in the markets and we’re excited to launch a new show dedicated to helping viewers spot these emerging investment prospects,” said FBN executive vice president Kevin Magee.

Noted Payne: “There are money making opportunities behind every headline and each day I am going to debate and analyze these potential investments with the aim of helping viewers find their confidence in the markets and realize their long-term dreams and goals.”

Making Money with Charles Payne will move into the slot that is currently occupied by Cavuto, which will now premiere in its old 8 p.m. hour, before continuing to encore at 11 p.m. That show, featuring Neil Cavuto, the longtime anchor and commentator on FBN and Fox News Channel, had been serving as a placeholder in the 6 p.m. hour, when FBN changed its schedule following the addition of Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo in February.

After 20 years on CNBC where she anchored the Closing Bell and gained fame for becoming the first journalist to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for Squawk Box, Maria Bartiromo joined Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel. She launched weekday market show Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo on FBN on Feb. 24, and bowed Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo March 30 on FNC before 1.08 million viewers, more than doubling the audience of CNN and MSNBC and nearly matching that feat in the news demo of adults 25 to 54. Multichannel.com news editor Mike Reynolds recently sat down with Bartiromo to discuss her shows’ early performance and the move to Fox, where she has been reunited with an old friend, Fox News president Roger Ailes. An edited transcript follows.

Multichannel News: What’s the transition been like?

Maria Bartiromo: The show is similar because it's a market show, two hours, live. The Sunday show has been just a complete, new, energizing, refreshing thing for me.

I find that everyone is working really hard here. They know they're number one and they're busy. They're going to keep being number one and they’re doing their job. But everybody has been unbelievable; they've really made it easy for me, going out of their way to welcome me.

Shepherd Smith sent me flowers. Bill O'Reilly took me in his office and just chatted me up. Judge Napolitano said ; “When can you have coffee?” They are all - Jeanine Pirro as well - they are all being so wonderful to me. So I think that the warmth that they have shown me has been just so great and I appreciate them all.

MCN: It's good to work on Sundays?

MB: I love it. I mean the show, I love. It's hard working six days, I guess. But I just got the numbers and we beat CNN and MSNBC combined every week since we launched. So I feel like that tells you right there that there is an appetite for economic angles and business information on a Sunday.

MCN: You identified that as an opportunity?

MB: Yeah, it was. I like to watch TV on a Sunday morning with my coffee. I used to just flip around watching who everybody had. And what I realized was that while you see all these politicos talking about the issues of the country -- whether it's the economy, whether it's foreign policy -- very few of them actually connect the dots and actually say and identify the fact that it's about jobs.

And so I was talking about that in a Sunday show and I brought it to Roger [Ailes] and he loved the idea and said business can be part of the solution. And I said, right, I agree. So with his help and with  [FNC EVP of programming] Bill Shine and [FNC EVP of news] Michael Clemente offering their visions, together we came up with this idea.

MCN: On Sunday and overall, you're taking a longer-form approach?

MB: Increasingly over the last couple of years, what I have heard from CEOs and guests is the fact that it feels too short term. What I kept hearing from them was things like, 'Maria, you had me on for five minutes, I came all the way here and it's a complex story and I can't really tell my story in five minutes.'

MCN: Plus, you have three other guests on at the same time.

MB: Right. Well I was under pressure to have four and five people on at once. In the Nineties, it was all about the stock market; it was dotcom boom and then dotcom bust. People wanted these short, sound-bite situations.

But I think over time audiences have changed, frankly. I think they want analysis, they want perspective

So we're definitely trying to have guests on for longer. We don't have a set time. I mean I had James Gorman, the CEO of Morgan Stanley on for an hour. I had Steve Schwartzman, the CEO of Blackstone Group, on for an hour. But then we had John Donahoe, the CEO of eBay, we had him on for fifteen minutes. You don’t do everyone for an hour.

MCN: Is part of the appeal here to help boost Fox Business Network?

MB: Fox News Channel is the leading cable network, so I've got that support behind me for the Sunday show and that's phenomenal. Fox Business Network is a little more of a build-out situation and I know that and it's not going to happen overnight. This team has done a great job in six years. I'm here because I want to help them build this network, because I think people do want an alternative. For Fox Business Network, I feel like I have already had incredible success because I have had guests on the air that have never walked through the building. I mean I am having the highest of the high in corporate America on the show every day. So I think as long as we do a good show, the numbers come later.

MCN: What about working with Roger again?

MB: One of the reasons I came here frankly was because I did want to reunite with Roger Ailes. I like him a lot. He is very smart, very savvy about branding, about television. And he put me on the air twenty years ago. I mean he saw something in me, he believed in me, and I have always had the highest regard for him.

I think another reason was because I've seen Bill (Shine) and Michael Clemente and Brian Jones in action. Kevin Magee used to work with me as well at CNBC, and he’s running Fox Business Network. I like him a lot. When I looked at the overall management team, I thought these guys know what they're doing.

MCN: The way contracts work, you had sixty days between jobs. How did you handle that?

MB: Well, it was tough. I like to work. In twenty years I must have taken two weeks off at a clip, right? I mean do you ever take more than two weeks off? No one does.

Even knowing that there was a chance I was going to leave, I was booking December and I shouldn't have. But I had a commitment to Governor Cuomo, who asked me if I would moderate his Regional Economic Awards Program in Albany. I had a commitment that I said I would go to the White House Holiday Dinner.

Then it was the holidays. I should have, in retrospect, gone away to the Caribbean, put my feet up and not done anything, but I didn't.  Then I finally realized okay, I am going to be working soon…

MCN: For a long time…

MB: I better do something because I'm not going to have a vacation. So I went to Milan with my sister. We went to La Traviata at La Scala Opera House. Then we went to see the Last Supper painting, which is absolutely spectacular. And then I went hiking with my husband in Arizona for two and a half weeks with my husband,  So I did have some time off. And then I went to Davos that was also in my schedule.

And I’m really happy I did because it was very important for me to be able to communicate to people why I left and why I was starting a new job.

MCN: What big names are you trying to get for Sunday?

MB: I'm trying to look at the issues of the day with an economic angle. That's really my mandate. And so I'm not going to take the guests that are doing their rounds on Meet the Press and Bob Schieffer. If John Kerry decides do the rounds, we probably won't take him because I am not going to do the same show that's out there right now, I want to do everything through an economic lens.

So the first program we led with [economist] Larry Summers, and his take on the economy, his take on the Fed. Then, it was the weekend of Obama Care so then we had Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of Cleveland Clinic. We had [former director of the National Economic Council] Gene Sperling. So I'm trying to get in every show a policy maker, yes, and a regulator, yes, but also an economic person, whether it's a CEO or someone who was the Treasury Secretary.

So I don't really have these must-gets in my head. I am trying to lean into the week ahead. We were the first show to show [author] Michael Lewis's quote, ‘The market is rigged,’ and have Larry Summers react to it and then that following week everybody was going crazy over it.

MCN: So, it’s an advantage playing on Sunday?

MB: Yeah, I think so.