Exclusive: Steve Doocy of Fox News and the Secrets from 28 Years Ago in New York.

This week marked the 25th anniversary of Fox News’ launch. Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the network’s impact on the multichannel universe. It consistently ranks as the most-watched cable channel in primetime and total day, and frequently beats out the broadcasters in coverage of big new events. To mark the milestone, we chatted with “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy, who joined Fox News shortly after its launch. He recently reflected on the anniversary in a Fox News special as well. 

Take us back to the Fox News’s launch. What were those early days like? In the beginning, it was a mad dash to get everything ready. I started right after the launch. In the beginning, we were really just trying to figure out how to get on in New York because until we got on in New York, the ad buyers wouldn’t see us. It took a long time, but eventually we got on. [Time Warner Cable agreed to carry Fox News in July 1997.] That was really one of the turning points. I believe Time Warner owned CNN at the time, so it wasn’t really in their interest to launch another cable competitor. But we were in New York City and it just made sense we’d be on in New York.

What was that initial vision for Fox News and do you think it was achieved or did it evolve over the years?I think the whole idea behind it in the beginning is what we still do today. They’ve done research and there’s a whole part of the country that feels like nobody’s talking about things that are of interest to them. So the whole ‘fair and balanced’ thing that started in the beginning, where we’re going to give you both sides and it’s going to be different from other channels because others don’t really talk about the other side.

Can you talk about how Suzanne Scott has put her stamp on the network?The whole business has changed in the last five years. Now we have a streaming service, podcasts, radio and, of course, the two channels. And we’re opening a third channel with Fox Weather as a streaming service. She and her team have done a great job trying to figure out where the business is going next, and then lining us up in a way that we can take advantage of whatever the next big thing is.

Was there a period of uncertainty with Roger Ailes’ resignation? It was a couple years before Suzanne was actually named CEO.I don’t remember it as uncertainty. His resignation was certainly sudden, we were all in Cleveland, Ohio, for the GOP Convention. The main thing I remember at that time was that Tr::ump was surging and as we were then heading to the Democratic convention in Philly—trying to figure out how to cover all of that accurately and fairly.

Obviously, Fox News and you yourself are no strangers to criticism. How do you deal with it and do you feel like there was a time over the past 25 years where it ratcheted up or took a different tone?We didn’t have criticism in the beginning because we didn’t have the audience. The criticism started when we were for the most part number one. When you’re number one, everybody’s out to get you, so it goes with the territory. Since we became number one over 20 years ago, it’s been pretty much the same deal.

It was about five years after launch that Fox News really began to tip the ratings scale and have some big quarterly defeats over CNN. What was that like?We had worked for a long time really hard. When we finally caught them and then eclipsed them, it was ‘OK, just keep the pedal on the gas.’ Because if we want to stay number one, we’re going to have to work as hard going forward as we did to get here. At the end of the day, I still look at the ratings every day to see how we did… Everybody knows what’s involved, and they work as hard as they can. It’s a pleasure to be part of the team.