Billy Bush expected to join Fox News Media as contributor

Billy Bush is expected to join Fox News Media as a contributor, with the appointment to be unveiled on Tuesday, 22 September.

Variety reported the expected hire. Bush is slated to make his first appearance on Fox News Channel's Jesse Watters Primetime in the 8 p.m. hour. That slot sits at the start of the channel's evening opinion block.

A contributor means a regular on-air guest paid to appear across shows, rather than a full-time host with his own hour. Bush is expected to appear across multiple Fox News Media platforms, not only the cable channel. The exact shows and frequency were not disclosed.

The move puts Bush back on a national news payroll almost a decade after he left NBC News. In October 2016, he negotiated his exit from NBC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He had been a host on Today. He was later fired from that programme for his role in the 2005 tape, according to Fox News.

Bush has said staff at NBC and Access Hollywood knew a tape existed of Donald Trump saying inappropriate things about women, according to Reuters. That tape, recorded in 2005 during an Access Hollywood segment, became public during the 2016 presidential campaign.

His route back to daily television ran through entertainment news. In January 2019, Bush was in talks to return to television on Extra, the syndicated entertainment show sold station by station to local markets, according to The Hollywood Reporter. By May 2019, he was set to join Fox stations' Extra Extra for its autumn 2019 debut, according to Deadline.

For viewers, this means a familiar entertainment presenter in a new chair. Primetime cable news runs on regular faces. Contributors join panels, give reaction and take calls from hosts. Bush starts in one of the most-watched hours on cable.