Jacqui Heinrich Brings White House Expertise To Weekends With New Fox News Show

This Sunday marks a major milestone for Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News Channel’s senior White House correspondent, as she makes her debut as the rotating anchor of the network’s new weekend program, The Sunday Briefing. The show launched last weekend–hosted by Heinrich’s partner at the White House, Peter Doocy–and represents not only a new chapter in Heinrich’s career but also an opportunity for Heinrich and Doocy to experiment and reshape how political news is delivered to a changing audience.

“I’m still a little tired,” Heinrich told me from the White House, describing her exhausting travel schedule over the last few weeks, including stops in the UK and Arizona, where she covered the death of Charlie Kirk. “But (I’m) very excited for this new and exciting show. I think it’s going to be great.”

The show, Heinrich says, is being built “from the ground up,” in an effort to reach viewers who may get their news as much from TikTok as they do from networks like Fox News. “There’s so much to cover and so many big headlines—you can take the show in many different directions,” she told me, without revealing any surprises in store for her debut Sunday. “We’ve got a few irons in the fire, but we will get back to you on what the plan is once it is set in stone.”

If Heinrich’s looking to make a splash with a newsmaking interview Sunday, she’s got her work cut out for her after Doocy landed President Donald Trump for his first guest. The president gave Doocy–son of longtime Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy–some advice on hosting the new show: “I can say honestly, just be yourself. You’ve done a great job. Your father’s very proud of you. He has been a friend of mine for a long time, and you are definitely his son,” Trump said. “I look at you, there’s no question about that, but just be yourself. Keep doing the job you’re doing. You’re doing great.”

Telling the untold stories of the Trump White House

Heinrich sees The Sunday Briefing as a unique opportunity to give viewers a deeper understanding of this moment in history, when a president and his administration are moving with breathtaking speech to reshape not just what happens at the White House, but the entire government–even the world.

“There’s a lot that we do at the White House that you don’t see on TV,” Heinrich said. “There are conversations we have with people to try to shape an understanding of why policy is coming together, who played a role in the idea, or how they plan to defend it.”
She believes the show will give her the space to bring those behind-the-scenes insights to the forefront. “The White House beat touches everything,” Heinrich said. “There is no shortage of ideas in terms of what we can bring to the fore.”

Launching on cable news, with an eye to digital and social

One of the Heinrich’s ambitions with the new show is to connect traditional cable viewers with younger, digital-native audiences. Heinrich described the program as a “next-gen show,” echoing a phrase used by her colleague Peter Doocy. “I think it’s both,” she said when I asked whether the goal was to attract younger viewers to television or meet them where they are online. “You could engage with an audience online and say, ‘What are you curious about this week?’ Or take the content from the channel and bring it to your app or social media in a way that teases what’s ahead or generates new viewership.”

She cited Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst as a model for this kind of cross-platform engagement. “Trey has a huge audience on TikTok, where he brings bullet-point news to that audience and then drives them to the channel to watch the in-depth reporting,” Heinrich told me. “We all need to explore how to do that better as the traditional structure of media consumption is in this ever-changing landscape.”

No formula, just flexibility

Without giving much away, Heinrich told me The Sunday Briefing will not follow a rigid format. “We want to get away from a formula,” she said. “People tend to tune out when they know what to expect.” Instead, the show will be flexible enough to follow the news cycle (especially the fire hose of news from Washington) and open to experimentation. “Trying something new means that you do different things,” she said. “I can’t tell you that it’s going to be the same every weekend.”

She also hinted at the possibility of bringing in new voices, like podcasters, or exploring trending topics in unconventional ways. “Is it that you go on a podcast to promote the show? Is it that you get a podcaster who’s in the news to come on the show?” she said. “It will be different week to week.”

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Asking tough questions but earning respect from an always-watching Trump

What’s it like for Heinrich to report daily from the White House knowing that the president–famously addicted to watching hours of cable news each day–tends to express his feelings about journalists in real-time on social media? “My job is to gather the facts and present them to the audience fully, fairly, completely honestly,” Heinrich said. “As long as I’m doing that, I feel very good about everything else.”

She’s no stranger to the challenges of covering a president known for his combative relationship with the press. “I’ve been in the line of fire from this president myself,” she said, noting that the president was unhappy with comments she made about Trump’s summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which she described as “extremely productive.”

But it was Heinrich’s description of a bizarre “news conference” with Putin and Trump that angered the president. Noting that despite reporters being told both men would take questions, the men gave brief remarks and walked out.

“The way that it felt in the room was not good. It did not seem like things went well, and it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say and got his photo next to the president and then left,” she said.

“He posted on social (after that report) that I’d be better off at CNN,” Heinrich told me. But she’s not going anywhere. “I’ve been promoted now—this is my fourth promotion at this network since the last election.”

Heinrich said she receives “nothing but support” from Fox News and has been given “more resources to do more work.” She added, “I don’t think you can think about [criticism] and do a good, honest job at the same time.”

The Sunday Briefing airs Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. ET on the Fox News Channel.