Back in the days, ending last August, when the Fox News Channel’s “Red Eye” featured Joanne Nosuchinsky, the actress and comedienne provided a compelling reason to stay up and watch the show. For those on the West Coast, that means past midnight. For East Coasters that’s 3 a.m., a time slot for slackers, wired-up swing-shift workers, and the sleep-disordered.
It’s hard to deny the talk show took a hit when Nosuchinsky announced that she was leaving FNC to pursue her fortunes as an actress. That’s taking nothing away from host Tom Shillue, who has been yeoman-like in his efforts to keep the topical conversations flowing. Nosuchinsky had also become a regular on former Red Eye host Greg Gutfeld’s weekend show, “The Greg Gutfeld Show,” where in addition to being a panelist, she also performed skits and street comedy with fellow comedienne Katherine Timpf.
Nosuchinsky is a tough act to follow. As a “Red Eye” panelist for two-plus years, she anchored the “leg chair” with humor and smarts. Her circuitous reasoning almost always worked its way back around to an enlightening thought, often a contrasting perspective that distinguished her from more politically oriented guests. A former Miss New York, Nosuchinsky brought to the show a quality one might euphemistically describe as “girl-power.”
Nosuchinsky recently surfaced in her first post-Fox appearance of note, starring in an MTV commercial.
Next page: See Nosuchinsky’s recent Instagram update and read more
Where she goes from here is yet to be determined. A sitcom might seem a likely venue for an actress with comedic timing, but it’s also possible to imagine Nosuchinsky playing a serious dramatic role, perhaps a jilted suburban housewife, or the “other woman.” Starlets have traditionally taken horror flick roles as a means to breaking into feature films. For a witty actress capable of moods, suspense might be the ticket, perhaps “a woman in peril, with a firearm.”
At “Red Eye,” the beat goes on, with a nice heavy metal opening theme that goes acoustic at the halfway point. Taking nothing away from the talented women who appear on the show, it would be nice if there were more of them. The latest ratings figures I could find (February 2016) show “Red Eye” was averaging 361,000 viewers a night, with an average of 109,000 in the coveted 24-54 demo. With the election season over, and Nosuchinsky having moved on, newer ratings numbers would be instructive as to the impact of Nosuchinsky’s departure.
Notwithstanding unfortunate allegations of alleged sexual misconduct at the network, Fox news has fielded an impressive lineup of talented and visually appealing women in its 20 -ear history. Joanne Nosuchinsky brought a different skill set into the mix; it will be interesting to see where her journey takes her now (I think that’s one of Gutfeld’s banned phrases).
There is apparently some truth to the rumor that, when asked if she’d ever return to “Red Eye” as a guest, Nosuchinsky laughed. I think that means we’ll have to keep an eye out for where she pops up next.
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