Another Fusion show bites the dust. This time, it’s “Fusion Live,” the nightly 8 pm newscast anchored by Mariana Atencio and Pedro Andrade.
The daily, which started out as “The Morning Show” when Fusion launched on October 28 of last year, was reorganized in January and moved to its evening time slot in March.
In an email sent to staffers today, CEO Isaac Lee announced they would stop production of new editions of “Fusion Live” effective immediately as part of the network’s changes to “help position Fusion to grow and improve” in 2015.
The show’s cancellation means there will be some layoffs and staff reorganization.
Javier Guzmán, the show’s Executive Producer, is leaving the network, while the anchors Mariana and Pedro will be moved to other show units.
The first show to get axed was “DNA,” back in January, after barely 3 months on the air.
In March, the network scaled back Jorge Ramos’ “América” from a daily to a weekly. Fusion also downsized “Open Source” with León Krauze and then quietly eliminated it from its schedule altogether.
The only originally-produced dailies remaining are “Alicia Menéndez Tonight” and “No You Shut Up.”
In his email, Lee states “2015 is going to be a pivotal year for Fusion and our success is tied to our ability to experiment, adapt, and evolve.”
Here’s the email in its entirety, obtained by TVNewser:
Hola Fusion,
As we prepare for 2015 we are making some changes to our television line-up that will help position Fusion to grow and improve our television offerings in the new year.
As of today we will stop producing new editions of “Fusion Live.” Throughout our first year, “The Morning Show,” and later “Fusion Live,” was a place for us to experiment and try new things.
Over the past year, we’ve seen Mariana Atencio truly shine with her field reporting in a broad range of locales, from Ferguson to Mexico, Hong Kong, and Venezuela, telling the stories that other outlets simply weren’t covering. Pedro Andrade was the ideal tour guide when the world descended upon his home country of Brazil for the World Cup giving our audience an insider’s view of the celebration.
We will be moving members of the “Fusion Live” production team to other shows and units. Wade will be having meetings with teams throughout the day to discuss this in greater detail and will answer any questions you might have.
By shifting gears from a nightly show, this change will allow us to form a new production team, led by Mark Lima, that will help us ramp up the number of single topic specials we produce in the new year and build on our previous successes.
As we have learned through the success of “Pimp City,” “Agents of Change,” “#SOSVenezuela,” and most recently with “RiseUp,” young people are deeply curious and seeking context about many of the complex issues facing our world today. They are interested in programming that tackles big topics or helps them answer core questions about what is happening in the world around them.
Mark’s new team will work to bring our authentic, engaging style of storytelling to a number of specific stories and issues our audience is interested in. Mariana and Pedro will play an integral role in this team, while also contributing regularly to “AMERICA” and “AM Tonight.”
We are also having a number of conversations with ABC, ESPN, and the Univision News documentary unit that will result in exciting new additions to our lineup in early 2015. I look forward to sharing more news about that in the days and weeks ahead.
As a result of our decision, I’m sad to announce Javier Guzman will be leaving Fusion. He has been a dedicated champion of Fusion over the past year and a half. I would like to thank him for all the contributions he has made to Fusion and wish him all the best.
2015 is going to be a pivotal year for Fusion and our success is tied to our ability to experiment, adapt, and evolve. I am incredibly proud of how much we have learned and grown in 2014 and I believe Fusion is positioned for incredible growth across all our platforms in the coming year.
– Isaac