Fox News Channel’s “The Five” delight in talking at and over each other. Throw them together in one very spiffy bus for a road trip to the Republican and Democratic conventions and watch the sparks — and opinions — fly.
“We did go to the 2012 conventions together,” Dana Perino said. “It’s fun, like the Olympics for politics. I also think it’s pretty cool to go to Pittsburgh.”
They’ll be broadcasting live from PNC Park July 22, their first stop after the final night of the Republican Convention. Then it’s on to Philadelphia.
Eric Bolling, who played three games with the Pirates as a Gulf Coast League infielder before injury ended his baseball career in the mid-1980s, joked that this will be the closest he ever gets to their major league stadium.
Part of the fifth anniversary celebration of the show is the two-week road show. The “Fivers” (Ms. Perino and co-hosts Mr. Bolling, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Greg Gutfeld and Juan Williams) leave New York City Friday en route to Cleveland.
On the way, they’ll ride roller coasters in Hershey, Pa., check out Philadelphia and visit the Columbus Zoo, among other diversions. Ms. Guilfoyle, her colleagues joked, will kiss a pig at the Derry Agricultural Fair when the bus rolls into Westmoreland County July 16.
“This is payback from our producers,” Mr. Bolling said.
There’s even a side trip to see what’s billed as the world’s largest wheel of cheese, in Berlin, Ohio.
It’s a fitting stop for the show, which has climbed atop cable news ratings with live-at-5 p.m. jockeying for air time. The Fivers often don’t share the same points of view, which creates the potential for free-for-all, conservative debate.
But most agreed on one thing: the climate of the GOP convention will be unpredictable.
“I think there’s the potential for things to go crazy in Cleveland,” said Mr. Williams, who took in a Pirates game while in town to speak to some Duquesne University students a few weeks ago.
“I think this is one of the most exciting times in American politics, and we will have a front-row seat at these conventions,” Ms. Guilfoyle added.
“It’s a strange, strange time,” Mr. Gutfeld said. “Nostradamus didn’t even expect this.”
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478 or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: July 12, 2016, 10:03 p.m.
