Courtney Friel interview: update…
Following up on this, Greg Kelly can’t be too thrilled with Courtney Friel prematurely aging him…
So you don’t think your looks had anything to do with Fox hiring you?
Courtney Friel: “I’m a total goofball, but I also know I was brought in to attract younger viewers. On Fox and Friends there’s Greg Kelly who has his Marine experience and Kelly Wright who’s a minister. They’re both around 20 years older than I am, so we all balance each other out.”
Greg Kelly is not 47…
UPDATE: Insiders tell ICN that Kelly is close to 40…
I think he’s only 34. He’s got 7 years on her.
Comment by Jim — May 7, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
LOL, He’ll get her on that one, I’m sure.
Comment by Noelle — May 7, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
Hahahah Good for her, I don’t think he treats her very good on FNFW.
Comment by Lurker — May 7, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
I wouldn’t treat her well either, I think he’s the one she tried to shoot with a nail gun she claims wasn’t loaded.
Comment by Jim — May 7, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
If it will get me in Friel’s good graces, I’ll argue that she meant Greg and Kelly have a combined 20 years on her.
Comment by Caufield — May 7, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
That is funny, but she is rubbish at presenting. FNFW will never be what it was when J Huddy was on it. Back then FNFW was better than normal FNF
Comment by craig gordon — May 7, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
Yes Craig Gordon, I agree. I was a big J Huddy fan too.
Comment by Noelle — May 7, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Greg is older than 34, he’s around 38 or 39. But still not close to 20 years older than Courtney.
Comment by OverHere — May 7, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
I never get to see “the morning show” but i am hoping it will have bad ratings and get canceled. Forcing Mike & Huddy back to Fox News. I think they are better than that show and its tasteless showbiz stories.
If that does not happen then i think that James Rosen, Tony Perkins & Ainsley Yearhardt would be good hosts of FNFW. Rosen was VERY good on Weekend Live a few weeks ago.
Comment by craig gordon — May 7, 2007 @ 1:02 pm
I’m pretty sure Greg is 38. I don’t think he cares for her too much anyway.
Comment by Gab — May 7, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
Dream On Craig. J. Huddy and Mike G. will not be returning to F&FW anytime soon. Get rid of Courtney, what a diz brain and bring on Page Hopkins. She is great.
Comment by cathy — May 7, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
Although the woman from “The Apprentice” is smokin’ hot, I’d much rather see Courtney Friel in Playboy.
Comment by Tom — May 7, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
It was very sad yesterday to see “Ainsley” in the middle chair on F & F Weekend, w/Page reading the news updates. How ridiculous - Page has experience and personality; their roles should have been reversed.
I wish Fox would show a little more respect to their employees AND their viewers when they make their personnel decisions.
Comment by Missy — May 7, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
Ya, I missed Page this weekend. She would of been great with Tony Perkins. (I Loved Tony by the way).
Comment by Noelle — May 7, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
I agree, Page is the better host.
When the new biz channel starts they might move the “cost of freedom” and have a weekend “americas newsroom” hosted by page hopkins and greg jarret?. They could move “Weekend Live” to 11am to go up against Wolf on CNN and that would allow a “Live Desk” weekend hosted by Uma….im dreaming again though…
Comment by craig gordon — May 7, 2007 @ 2:43 pm
hear, hear - page is best for that center seat! my boyfriend had stopped watching after juliet left - when page started doing the show, he started watching - it was hilarious again! funny and edgy! ainesly is boring - i agree it was weird to see page doing news updates - she and greg kelly have great chemistry - what is going on at fox?
Comment by lulu — May 7, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
Has it ever occurred to you “Page lovers” that if FNC wanted her in the seat they wouldn’t of tried all these other people out? Of course she does an alright job.. I personally don’t care for her though.
Comment by Terance — May 7, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
The absolute worst was Courtney at the Kentucky Derby.
What an idiot. And they showed her every twenty minutes.
She is a blithering idiot. Her IQ must be the same as her age.
Comment by cella — May 7, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Maybe it should “occur” to FOX management that if they don’t start listening to their intelligent audience and use the people they ask for, that they will continue to lose viewers. To replace an experienced and competent Page with an awkward and embarassingly bad Courtney or Ainsley is an insult to all of us.
Comment by cr — May 7, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
Cr, I agree to some extent… I was more struck by them replacing Kiran with Friel in the first place. They had plenty of women who know about current events and can conduct themselves in a professional manner.
Comment by Terance — May 7, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
Maybe they should bring back Donna Fiducia and give her the Center Chair on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Comment by Bob — May 7, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
Lulu #16, That was the same with my husband and I. After Juliet left we stopped watching F&F weekends too. But when Page has been on, it was fun and watchable again. Kiran and the other women she co hosted with (can’t remember her name at this moment) didn’t do it for me. But Page does.
Comment by Noelle — May 7, 2007 @ 4:36 pm
Cella, You are definately right about her Kentucky Derby Coverage. There is no other news personality that I can think of that is as dumb as Courtney. She cracked me up on Geraldo’s show. She said, “This is the first race horse that I’ve ever been to.”
Comment by Objective Analyst — May 7, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
Juliet and Mike were just sleazy together. Blech.
Friel’s delivery is barely acceptable for MTV News, let alone an actual news channel. Even her Kentucky Derby coverage was painful to watch. I was half-expecting her to go “Woooo!” and start dancing on a table.
Comment by Amused — May 7, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
Courtney’s history is doing the world poker tour (or the equivalent) and some video gaming channel hosting. Not your hard news or news at all for that matter. This does not seem to be her niche.
The more I watch her the more I cannot watch her. While I don’t like name calling or insulting her, she does not seem to be the brightest bulb in the bunch. I hope to God she does not ever host FNFW again. While Kiran may have been eye candy, as Courtney is, Kiran could read a teleprompter and was well prepared. I have never seen Courtney do an interview or segment where she comes off well.
As for her comment about Greg and Kelly…..consider the source.
Comment by jerziegrl — May 7, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Honestly, everytime Courtney is on air I have to change the channel. Are we really surprised by her math skills????
Comment by Veronica — May 7, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
FYI - Greg is 38. His DOB is 12-17-68. When you read her interviews in “Steppin’ Out” magazine as well as the one in “FHM” magazine, it’s not hard to understand why she has such atrocious math skills. Guess it was a good thing she was so-called eye candy on a poker show, cause she wouldn’t have been able to handle the math for a show on blackjack.
#4 Jim — Yes, it was indeed Greg Kelly that she aimed the loaded nail gun at. http://tinyurl.com/2wxnsf IF you watch the “Around the House” segment from April 28th, they’re making jokes about the incident at HER expense. http://tinyurl.com/yoawpg
IF Courtney thinks she was hired to bring in the so-called younger audience, she needs to think again. The younger audience is NOT awake at that time of the morning.
Comment by Tiamat — May 7, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
Anyone heard her voiceover for the latest Foxnews.com commercial yet?
Comment by CurrentlyAvailable — May 7, 2007 @ 10:49 pm
#28…Yes, and I’m tired of Fox throwing her at us every chance they get!
Comment by Veronica — May 7, 2007 @ 11:29 pm
She was hired to bring in the dirty old man audience.
Comment by Amused — May 8, 2007 @ 7:14 am
I absolutely love the comments especially the last one #30.
Comment by Cathy — May 8, 2007 @ 9:10 am
#30, It’s really not that difficult.
And #16 and #22 are all for it.
Comment by hmmm — May 8, 2007 @ 9:28 am
“Its not loaded.”
That would be funny, if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Comment by Bill — May 8, 2007 @ 10:15 am
From #4 in part reads:”…I think he’s the one she tried to shoot with a nail gun she claims wasn’t loaded.”
Unfortunately, I did not see that segment. Perhaps part of the blame for this mishap was that the stage manager and assistant weren’t doing their job! You see, you don’t bring a loaded pistol on the set. If those working behind the scenes knew about this thing being loaded but didn’t say anything to Courtney, it is they who are at fault. Who’s in charge of the props? I sense some hidden jealousy probably from those who work with Courtney and are trying to make her look like a heel. Maybe I’m wrong.
Another point to ponder is perhaps, Courtney has never been around guns of any type so she was unfamilar with how to handle it. That is not her problem. That is the stage manager’s problem and the assistant. Her job is to read the teleprompter. And she’s not the only one who perhaps stinks are teleprompter reading.
She’s just a gorgeous and gracious lady that some simply cannot accept.
I agree with Post #17. Page Hopkins is ok but unappealing to me. But then I’d rather watch Page than Mike and Juliet. Juliet reminds me of Joan Rivers. Too loud and boisterous for my taste and she talks too much. What I like about Courtney, is she is tame with her speech and style. She doesn’t have to prove she’s smart to anybody.
Besides, isn’t watching Fox News Channel really about entertainment television. They are there to entertain us. That’s why they have agents. We’re not supposed to take everything seriously that we see.
Comment by Joan Sabino — May 8, 2007 @ 3:12 pm
She may be gorgeous….but jeez-o-peet, you don’t need a stage manager or teleprompter to know you NEVER EVER point a nail gun, or anything like it, at ANYONE!
You need a brain…something she claims she has, though I have may doubts.
Comment by Bill — May 8, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
Joan, the point of that segment was to demonstrate certain tools and right after she pointed it at Greg Kelly, she turned around and used it for its intended purpose — and it was, indeed, loaded.
One major thing I can’t stand about Courtney is the way she primps and preens constantly, always trying to draw attention to herself.
Comment by Amused — May 8, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
Joan Sabino — You can watch the segment on Fox’s website via this link http://tinyurl.com/2wxnsf … Or you can go to FoxNews.com and search for “Around the House” … Then click on “Video” … and click on the segment from March 31st … It’s the one about the tools …
With those segments, they always do a little bit of a run-through BEFORE they go on air … So, she knew the nail gun was loaded & plugged into the air compressor …
Everybody in the tv/radio news industry has an agent … especially those on big time tv news channels …
Comment by Tiamat — May 8, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
Tiamat, from your post #37, “With those segments, they always do a little bit of a run-through BEFORE they go on air … So, she knew the nail gun was loaded & plugged into the air compressor …”
Who are “they” that you are referring to?
Comment by Joan Sabino — May 9, 2007 @ 12:03 am
Bill from your #35 post you stated “She may be gorgeous….but jeez-o-peet, you don’t need a stage manager or teleprompter to know you NEVER EVER point a nail gun, or anything like it, at ANYONE!”
You’re absolutely correct…one does not ever point a loaded pistal at somebody.
Two questions here:
1. How did a loaded pistol get on the set in the first place and whose idea was it to use it as a prop?
2. Why have stage managers or assistants for that matter? What good are they?
I went and tried to find that video that everybody on here has mentioned. Thanks for referencing those links. I tried accessing the video from but, to no avail, it appears the video was pulled from view. Still, I think, my two questions above deserve an explanation regarding the loaded pistol. If there is some stupidity and blame here I don’t think Courtney should bear that alone.
Comment by Joan Sabino — May 9, 2007 @ 12:53 am
Joan — The “they” that I referred to are the stage manager as well as the show hosts & guest(s) when it comes to the “Around the House” segments.
There was NOT a loaded “pistol” on the set … It was an automatic nail gun that was loaded with nails and hooked up to an air compressor that was on … There was a man in Idaho who died from wounds received from a nail gun.
The video IS indeed still on the Fox website. You need to have Windows Media Player 9 or new installed on your computer. What you should try is going to the main page on Foxnews.com, then clicking on one of the videos in “Fox News Videos” (top right of the page) and then you’ll have a new window pop-up which will ask you what speed you want to watch the video at … Let the video start to play, then close the window … Then go back to the link for the “Around the House” segment … http://tinyurl.com/2wxnsf
Comment by Tiamat — May 9, 2007 @ 4:45 am
Thanks, Tiamat! I’ll try to access it again. Yes, it was very stupid of Courtney to point a loaded nail gun Greg. Fortunately for her, no freak accident occurred. Otherwise, we’re talking big lawsuit!
Comment by Joan Sabino — May 9, 2007 @ 2:38 pm