The amazing secret hidden in the name of one of his most popular shows.

These days, people with even a passing familiarity with Fox News can name the cable network's morning show: Fox & friends. But most people don't know where the name comes from or that it has a somewhat confusing origin story.

Before it was Fox & friendsFox News' flagship morning show had a different name: Fox X press. Hosted by Steve Doocy (formerly “Weather Guy”), Brian Kilmeade (formerly “Sports Guy”) and ED Donahey, the show featured banter about politics, entertainment and sports – and good-natured, if decidedly un-PC, typical sayings. rib each other. It was a less formal, permissive environment that distinguished it from network morning shows for both viewers and its hosts.

“What I liked about Fox was the people,” ED Hill, who went by ED Donahey in the late '90s, told host Josh Levin for the second episode of Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News. She added: “Most places at the network level are not happy, fun places. People are in pretty bad shape and they're all out to get each other. And at Fox the opposite was true.”

In 1998 Fox X Press held a contest to see if viewers could come up with a better name for the show. The winning entry from a group of thousands came from a Central Florida couple who appeared on the morning show to explain their brainstorming. (According to the Orlando Sentinel, they saw it too Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway and went to a Yankees game when they came to New York City for the taping.)

“Well, it had one of those double meanings at the time,” explained John Strange, who filed Fox & friends with his wife Peggy. “You had a very good-looking lady in the middle, surrounded by you. So I thought, Fox, along with the friends outside.” Doocy and Kilmeade were the friends. Donahey was the fox. In a follow-up call to the podcast, she called Strange's characterization “cute!”

In 2011, on the 15th anniversary of Fox News' broadcast, the couple appeared again Fox & friends to tell the story of how the name came about. This time Peggy was able to say what she thought of the Fox and Friends concept.

“(ED) was beautiful and Gretchen (Carlson, then co-host) is beautiful. It just seems to fit,” she said.

Find out more about the development of Fox & friendsand hear directly from ED Hill about her time at Fox News in “A Network for Normal People,” Episode 2 of Slate's narrative podcast Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News. This week you can find the show in Amazon Music collections like Best Podcasts This Week. Listen ad-free on Amazon Music or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.