Is FNC Imitating The Situation Room?

“Is it my imagination or does this Fox image look like a pathetic imitation of the Situation Room?,” a CNNer asks. Yesterday I received many e-mails, including some from CNN staffers, who were surprised to FNC’s use of a four-box screen during Studio B. The boxes have appeared again this morning.

According to a network tipster, for the last three week period, The Situation Room’s 5pm hour was #1 in the 25-54 demographic. (That’s true even if FNC’s Big Story is combined with 40 minutes of special Katrina coverage that FNC “broke out,” the tipster added.)

Note to the critics who are going to complain that four screens isn’t a new idea: I know that. I’m just relaying the fact that CNNers who were sitting in the newsroom or the D.C. control room had a smile on their face yesterday when they noticed FNC’s boxes.

> Roger Ailes on Aug. 22: “What they’ve decided is they’re not getting the ratings with their programming, so they’ve decided to get the ratings with their walls.”

> Update: 4:39pm: “Fox did a SIX QUAD at 4:20pm, when Bill Richardson was on! It was RIDICULOUS!,” an e-mailer says. “And MSNBC started it during Sit Room too!”