Espuelas has signed a syndication deal with Hearst Television Inc., which is launching “Matter of Fact with Fernando Espuelas” in October.
The new half-hour weekly interview and discussion show will be broadcast from Washington, D.C.
Hearst is betting big on Espuelas’ experience, contacts, and name recognition. The Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, author, radio and cable TV comentator, and frequent contributor to The Hill, CNN.com and the Huffington Post, has interviewed top political figures including President Obama, Senator John McCain, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Bernie Sanders, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, among many others.
Hearst is investing longterm on Espuelas’ show. It will produce 48 weeks of original content that will initially air across the Hearst Television group primarily in the Sunday morning news and information block with plans for national expansion in the following months.
The show will become available On Demand via www.MatterofFact.tv after it airs on broadcast stations.
Former CBS Evening News producer Sheila Jaskot will be the show’s Senior Producer.
Espuelas shared with Media Moves what he’s been up to since his radio show was canceled, his excitement over the new venture, and his vision for his first syndicated TV program.
What have you’ve been doing since Univision Radio canceled your show in June?
I took some time off to be able to think about what my next step would be. I received several inquiries from media companies in radio and television. I decided I wanted to pursue television over radio. And then, Hearst offered me the show.
What do you think your Spanish and English political radio shows on Univision brought to the table for Latinos?
I think that it was the first national radio show specifically for Hispanics that was able to reach the most senior political leaders in the country and engage them in a serious conversation on U.S. politics, not just immigration – about issues that Hispanics are interested in.
The opportunity to engage political leaders opened up a conversation that perhaps wasn’t being had between the political establishment in the United States and the Hispanic audience.
What are your expectations of your new TV show “Matter of Fact” vs your Univision radio show?
The major difference of the show is that it’s a mainstream politics show and we’ll be reaching out to a wide range of Americans, not just Hispanics. We’ll be able to explore other issues and create the same conversation we had in radio but now in TV. The show will be much broader in scale and in reaching a broader audience.
How will your show be different or more relevant than other Sunday political discussions programs?
From the beginning the show is conceived for a younger audience. It’s not just as a broadcast show, but a digital show. It will be available on demand, where younger people will be more likely to engage – in digital platforms.
The major focus of the program and why it’s called “Matter of fact” is that the show won’t be looking at the horse race and ideology of parties. Its focus is to express and explain American politics through empirical data and objective reality.
So, instead of having the back and forth of both parties dominate the show, we’ll interject things you can prove and measure to give the audience a truly objective look at politics and policies that impact the nation.
I think most Americans are exhausted by political reporting that emphasizes the back and forth of both parties and that takes political reporting into the realm of sports – presenting who’s winning, instead of the facts.
I believe people would rather have objective information so they can form their own picture of what’s really going on. That’s my objective.