After earning a broadcast degree from the University of Arizona, Katie Pavlich left her home state for Washington, D.C., where she found success as a writer and editor for The Hill and the conservative website Townhall.com. The on-camera career Pavlich sought took a bit longer, but began after a chance encounter with a Fox News personality and his producer at a Conservative Political Action Conference gathering.
It was a bit of serendipity that takes an even stranger turn this week when Pavlich, 37, becomes the host of her own show on the cable network NewsNation — competing for viewers with that same Fox personality, Greg Gutfeld, in the 8-9 MST time slot.
“Katie Pavlich Tonight” will feature debate and discussion of current events, as well as interviews with newsmakers, according to NewsNation, launched in 2021 by Nexstar Media Group. The network bills itself as “America’s source for engaging and unbiased news, which reflects the full range of perspectives across the country.”
Pavlich, however, identifies herself as “unabashedly conservative.” One of her shows the first week will be from the White House, where she will interview President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration.
In an interview with the Deseret News, Pavlich, who lives with her husband of nearly 9 years in northern Virginia, explained the bold act that led to her first television appearance, how hunting with her dad in Arizona has influenced her home decorating choices and what she sees in the future for cable news.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Deseret News: I’ve heard you have a funny story about how you got on national TV for the first time, and it involves Greg Gutfeld. Can you share that?
Katie Pavlich: I was in D.C. for the first time as a young professional; I moved here after college and was working for Town Hall and I was at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, and was doing my best to network. I was brand new in town and trying to meet everyone. As a kid, I’d always wanted to do TV, and specifically, get on Fox, and Greg walked into a jam-packed reception. It was so crowded, it was hard to move around. And he walked in with his producer and booker, and I said, oh, I’ve got to go introduce myself, obviously.
I’m trying to get over to him — it’s like a sardine can in there — and I overhear him saying they’re going to leave because the line at the bar was too long. I’m tall — 5-9, when I’ve got heels on, about 6 feet — so I pushed myself over and said, “I’ll get you something, what do you want?” And so I towered over everybody, went to the front of the line, got them beers and came back, and they invited me on the show, which was amazing.
DN: This was the late-night show he had before “Gutfeld!” — “Red Eye.”
KP: Right. And they did not pay for travel, so I bought a bus ticket for $40 and went from D.C. to New York by bus, but three hours into the bus ride, the producer called me and said there’s a tsunami in Japan and we have to cancel the show for breaking news. And I thought, I’m never going to get on the show, this was my only opportunity. ... Thankfully they asked me to come back again. I bought another bus ticket, I went up to the studio and did the show, and at the end, they did offer me a car ride. So at the end, I got in this fancy car and had them take me to my brother’s dorm room at his university. And the driver was like, “Are you sure this is where you’re supposed to be?” And I slept on the floor at my brother’s dorm room. It was a fun experience. That was my intro to the world of cable TV.
DN: You went on to be a frequent guest on Fox. And now, all these years later, you will be on national TV at the same time as Gutfeld. How did the NewsNation show come about?
KP: NewsNation has done an amazing job as a new network that has news for all Americans. And they’re recognizing there is an appetite for conservative opinion and news in primetime. And I had worked at Fox for many years, I loved all of my time there, I loved my colleagues and the audience, but NewsNation gave me this amazing opportunity at 10 p.m. (Eastern), every day of the week, to be in D.C. at a time when there is so much happening. The timing was right to make the move and step into this new challenge that I’m very excited for.
DN: The network has tried to position itself as being in the middle, and not perceived on one side or the other. Does the fact that they’re bringing you on mean that they may be shifting to the right?
KP: No, not at all. If you look at their programming during the day, it’s straight news. And in the evening, we have Chris Cuomo and Leland Vittert and then there’s me, a conservative perspective on the news of the day and introducing new guests to the audience, with a perspective that millions of Americans hold ... that only adds to the credibility of the NewsNation lineup in terms of their mission to have programming for all Americans.
I am unabashedly conservative, and I think being open about my political leanings is actually a more honest way of approaching an audience. They know exactly where I’m coming from. And we’re going to have some lively debates on the show. We’re going to have conversations with people I disagree with; we’re going to have well-rounded perspectives on the most important issues of the day.
DN: Are you taping the show, or will it be a live broadcast?
KP: It’s live, except for any interviews we need to take earlier.
DN: You grew up in Arizona, you’re a hunter and you have talked a lot about the wonderful memories you have going hunting with your dad. I’d love to know how many taxidermied heads are in your home.
KP: I’d love to tell you. Yes, I grew up in northern Arizona. People imagine Arizona being one big, hot desert, but I grew up at 7,000-feet elevation with pine trees and big mountains where Olympians come to train every year. It’s actually higher than Denver by about 1,500 feet. Our field trips in grade school were to the Grand Canyon. So yeah, I grew up in the outdoors, camping and hunting with my dad. In my own home, I have a few different taxidermied items. I have an antelope that I got in Wyoming when I did a horseback hunting trip with my dad there. I have an alligator from Louisiana, a bison from Texas. Hunting has always been a big part of my life. More importantly, hunters are the No. 1 conservationists we have for our amazing outdoor spaces in this country. I’m very proud of that. But I’ll probably have a lot less time for that, with the new show.
DN: Do you have a position on Mark Levin versus Tucker Carlson?
KP: I would rather not get into that. But Mark Levin has always been amazing to me, and he has been a mentor and supported my work, and I think he’s right on probably 99% of the things he says.
DN: On Carlson’s recent podcast when he interviewed his brother, they said several times that cable news is dead, that it’s a thing of the past. You obviously don’t think that. What do you think the role of cable news is in this rapidly changing media environment.
KP: Cable news has an really important role, and NewsNation in particular. It started five years ago, and they’ve been growing. With the digital ecosphere we have now, you have all these people and other media outlets, relying on cable news for their content. And cable news networks have the resources to bring them information from reporters all over the country. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar and they own the most local news affiliates and stations throughout the country, so they really have a big reach and their reporters can see what’s happening on the ground.
DN: Is there any one book that played a big role in your development as a conservative?
KP: Well, the U.S. Constitution. (Laughs.) And Barry Goldwater’s book “The Conscience of a Conservative.”
DN: What do you want your viewers, and potential viewers, to know about you as you prepare to launch the show?
KP: I want them to know that I love America, and I love the military. I’m a Daughter of the American Revolution, and I plan on celebrating America’s 250th anniversary on the show. And we plan to feature the military every Friday on the show — men and women who are deployed all over the country, just to remind everybody that we get to live the life we do because they’re out doing jobs that we can’t see and don’t know about.