People change jobs all the time–and even moreso now that workers are finding the liberty to go after new positions in the friendly Biden economy–but with the recent resignations, new contracts, firings and free-agent signings, the coverage coming from the three primary cable news networks is going to shift in a big way in the coming months.

Fox News will shift further to far right:  Let’s state the obvious:  journalists with remaining shadows of self-respect and personal standards are abandoning Fox News, and Fox cannot find respectable talent to replace them.  First, it was Shepard Smith, who took off for the 7 p.m. ET slot on CNBC, where he’s struggling to regain his audience.  Now, Chris Wallace announces he’s leaving Fox immediately and going to CNN’s new streaming service (which will likely lead to a network show in the near future).

It’s likely no coincidence that this happens after Fox made a major commitment to white nationalist propagandist Tucker Carlson, the network’s Number One on-air talent.  Outlets have reported that many at the network are uncomfortable with Fox News’ coddling of violent white nationalist viewpoints expressed–albeit in dogwhistles many times–by Carlson, but Fox has pushed a great deal of its resources to producing Carlson’s content on air and online–like Carlson’s widely-panned “documentary” “Patriot Purge” that claims the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress was actually done by Leftist groups Black Lives Matter and antifa.

Note that no legitimate journalists are rushing to fill the spots at the top cable news network–when one would expect the large audience would be a selling point.  (The one exception recently:  Lara Logan, who has adopted the full-on batshit crazy correspondent role.) In the past two years (maybe more), when Fox News on-air staff has left, their positions have been filled by B- and C-level personalities who were best known as mid-level traffic bloggers, local radio hosts, or social media trolls.  These are not people trained to research stories and confirm sources; they trade in rumor and insult.

The content on Fox will shift.  It’ll go from far right “conservative” views–I put “conservative” in quotes because the GOP hasn’t been truly conservative in about four decades, and what I really mean is a GOP water-carrying viewpoint–to a full-on MAGA conspiracy theory network.

There’s been no trickle-down of talent to OANN and Newsmax:  These minor league propagandists will continue to wallow at the bottom of Fox Mountain, taking the cast-off guests and talent.  While their upticks in viewership after the 2020 election demonstrated their audiences’ desire for more batshit crazy conspiracies, Fox News has filled the gaps in its coverage sufficiently to keep these viewers happy.

Will Newsmax survive firing actress Emerald Robinson?  Will OANN still get access to high level government sources for cartoonist Chanel Rion?  Who cares?  Their broadcast model isn’t about sources; it’s about fairly attractive women and white men feeding the aggrieved feelings of their viewers.  While that produces loyal viewers, it shrinks the potential pool of new viewers to basically nobody.

MSNBC will change greatly in the coming year.  Brian Williams has resigned from the network.  Rachel Maddow is reportedly cutting back on her on-air workload at some point in 2022, likely to concentrate on longer-form reporting and documentaries.  That turns over half the primetime lineup within the course of months.

It will be a tough task for MSNBC to fill the 9 p.m. slot with someone who has Maddow’s intelligence, influence, tenacity and talent to report complicated stories; she has a knack of explaining why seemingly mundane stories are important.  Do they have that talent in-house to have an impact on the 2022 midterms?  Would it be a possibility for former GOP power player Nicole Wallace to take the spot?  Sure, but unlikely:  Wallace has a fantastic audience at 4 p.m. for a two-hour show.  It would be harder to move her style of show to a prime-time hour without a solid plan to replace her.  The network would just be complicating their issues when it drastically needs stability.

And while the Maddow shift will be a shock to regular viewers’ habits, the loss of Brian Williams will likely as big an impact of the image of MSNBC.  Williams was the stalwart of the network:  the seasoned journalist who was professional to guests and relatable to viewers.  His presence at the desk during big events like elections and breaking news gave gravitas to the issue and the coverage.  His will be another slot difficult to fill, but available to someone like a Katie Tur or Stephanie Ruhle.  Craig Melvin or Shep Smith would also be good options for this slot.

And Chuck Todd?  Well, he’s still gonna Chuck Todd, no matter how maddening he is.  But thankfully, he won’t be shifted to a primetime nightly show.

Will CNN go back to producing news?  Probably, yes.  As mentioned above, signing Chris Wallace to CNN’s streaming service seems like an audition to me:  if Wallace performs well, maybe he gets the Chris Cuomo’s spot.  Or they lure Shep Smith from CNBC.

But Wallace’s signing indicates something else:  CNN wants to shed it’s “far left” label–however undeserved–that it’s been painted with in MAGA world.  Wallace’s signing won’t make MAGAts watch CNN, but it will draw away Fox viewers who appreciate Wallace’s clarity and straight-down-the-line interviewing technique.  It would behoove the network to put Wallace on something other than a streaming program, given his audience hasn’t largely migrated to online viewing.

CNN’s problems, however, won’t be solved with Wallace’s hiring.  They need to abandon their habit of focusing on celebri-gossip-“blonde girl murdered” stories and minor Democratic gossip to pose as “balanced” coverage when Republicans are literally destroying government institutions.   They need more substance and less entertainment.