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The 1/2 Hour News Hour: Season 1
  • Network: FOX News
  • Series Premiere Date: Feb 18, 2007
  • Season #: 1 , 2
Metascore
12 out of 100

Overwhelming dislike - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 11
  3. Negative: 10 out of 11
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  1. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    60
    If none of this quite rises to the level of Jon Stewart's intellectual hopscotch or Amy Poehler's inspired lunacy, it's nonetheless agreeably funny.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    30
    Sometimes the humor is so heavy-handed that it seems almost like self-parody.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Barry Garron
    20
    A look at the first episode suggests that, just as A.M. radio is the unassailable province of the right, TV might better be left to the left.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    10
    The humor is so predictable and so stale that it fails to produce any laughs.
  5. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Storm
    10
    The 1/2 Hour News Hour is slow torture all by itself.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    10
    As for Surnow, in a sense, he's added a program to his resume that neatly dovetails with "24" -- demonstrating that stiff, uninspired comedy isn't exactly torture; it's just not much fun.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Joanna Weiss
    10
    In truth, there's nothing wrong with partisan humor, as long as it's actually funny. But here, even the less-political jokes are hopelessly obvious or old.
  8. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    0
    "Weekend Update" on its worst night isn't this bad.
  9. Slate
    Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    0
    You couldn't skewer a cube of tofu with material this dull.
  10. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Sacha Zimmerman
    0
    It's hard not to keep staring perplexed, squinting a little, and uttering, "I don't get it" every few seconds.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Amelie Gillette
    0
    It's even worse than anyone imagined.
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User Reviews

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User Score
2.8 out of 10

Generally unfavorable- based on 372 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 77 out of 283
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 283
  3. Negative: 202 out of 283
  1. liverleef
    0
    What makes the daily show work is that it exposes the absurd. If you watch stewart regularly you know that he will attack both the left and the right with mockery, however Fox is a favourite target because no other network contains more absurdity. You could make a whole show lampooning Glen Beck alone. Like everything on Fox, the 1/2 news hour tried to promote a political agenda, this show, however did it under the pretence of humour. In the end a comedy show has to be funny and the 1/2 hour news hour was never funny. It attempted to be funny but first of all the writers were horrible and the fact they focused 100% of their attention on the left doomed them. Not only did they lose mountains of humorous material by doing this but they came across as phoney. Compounding to this problem is that Fox has the oldest demographic of all cable news networks. If Fox viewers want comedy they'll watch Charlie Chaplin.… Full Review »
  2. EloyV.
    2
    Great show.
  3. MarkL.
    0
    The ACLU joke was actually really funny, because guess what right-wingers? THE KKK is a right-wing group, and we lefties defended your right to march! Whoohoo! That was irony, which Faux is really good at presenting...sometimes as actual news sadly.… Full Review »
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