‘Fox & Friends’ Steve Doocy Talks Son Peter, His New Life and What’s Next

Steve Doocy marked the end of an era last year when he stepped away from  the Fox & Friends’ curvy red couch. However, this wasn’t retirement for the Fox News original, but the beginning of a new chapter as he relocated to Florida. Doocy, who was part of the morning news program since its inception in 1998, went remote reporting coast-to-coast to bring a variety of human interest stories. Although he has paid a visit to the studio for special occasions like to commemorate 30 years of Fox News Channel in September. Doocy was also part of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coverage. 

The ability to step back a bit has given him more time for family. This includes Kathy, his wife of 40 years, and children and grandchildren. Doocy’s son Peter followed the journalism track, currently working as Senior White House Correspondent and The Sunday Briefing anchor. Here the proud dad opens up about watching Peter also working at Fox News. Plus, Doocy, who turns 70 on October 19, also addresses his own career future.  

Peter and Steve Doocy (Fox News Channel)

You’re not only leaving a legacy by your own career, but your son decided to follow in your footsteps. What does that mean to you? 

Steve Doocy: It’s very flattering. You know, in the beginning, when Peter was growing up we said, “You know, this is a very complicated business and I’m one in my journalism class of 120 kids. There are only three who have jobs in journalism. I’m lucky enough to have one of them.” So we suggested that he go into either law to be a lawyer or go to business school and figure it out. That was his track, Peter’s track. 

Then what happened? 

In 2008, when John McCain was running for president, Chris Matthews from MSNBC did his Hardball show at Villanova [University]. That was where Peter was a junior. Peter’s professor told the class, “Hey, if you want extra credit, go to this town hall tonight.” And so Peter went for his extra credit. They said, “Hey, do any of you kids have questions?” Peter has a very funny question. You should Google it. It’ll pop up. It was very simple. The next day the boss said, “Hey, why’s Peter on MSNBC?” I told him he was just in college. It was one of those things where they said, “When he graduates, he should come work here. He’s going to go to law school or business school. They said, “Let’s see what he wants to do when he gets closer.”  That election cycle Peter actually worked for us.  He was our college correspondent.

You remember the [Barack] Obama campaign was so big on campuses. A lot of the young people were supporting Obama at that level, and so it made sense that we have a college correspondent here. He covered both the Republican and Democrat conventions, one in St. Paul and one in Denver. Then when he graduated, the next year, they said that he should come do this. We said that he is going to be a lawyer. That he’s going to go to business school. You can always do that. You can always go back. He tried the reporter thing, and he was good at it, and he’s very good at it. And it’s satisfying to know that your kid has done this.  All my kids have watched the TV, the Fox News Channel pretty much their whole lives to see what Dad was up to. But for Peter to go into it, it meant a lot to us. One of those expressions is you always want your kid to do better than you did. I will be out and about, various people will say, “I do believe Peter is doing a better job than you are doing.” My wife and I feel the same way. It feels great.

Fox News Channel

It has been over a year since you’ve begun this roving reporter adventure. Talk a little bit about making the transition from the studio to the road.

The most complicated part of my new role is because I’m coast-to-coast, there’s some travel, and so the travel sometimes gets a little complicated. My intention is to just continue to work  probably three or four days a week walking around the country, floating around the country, seeing what people are up to, going for walks. The great thing about it is when I go on these walks, they’ll give us like a solid eight to 10 minutes, which in cable news, you just never get a 10-minute interview. For the most part, you’re just checking in what people are up to. I’ve seen the ratings as the segment goes on, the viewership just builds and builds. So that’s great to know that people embrace the idea. So, you know.

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What does your career future look like?

My plan is just to keep going and do exactly what I’m doing. If it were boring, which has never been boring, I would think twice about it. But I’m having so much fun doing it, and we’re kind of inventing a new way to do this where we use the latest technology called LiveView Technologies (LVT) . We can be anywhere, and we can walk anywhere. Although the one we did with Ted Nugent at his farm in Michigan was pretty remote. And the only way we could get a signal out there was, what’s it called? Starlink. So, I walked over to him in his backyard, and we got a cameraman from Washington, D.C. holding this two-by-two square foot receiver transmitter overhead. We go through the woods. It was kind of funny, but we’ve got great engineers who figured out how to do these things. Every day’s a new adventure, and you know that’s one of the things people say. They say, “Steve, I really enjoy your journeys around America now because we never know where you’re going to pop up, and we never know who you’re going to talk to.” That’s good. It’s never boring. It’s a lot of fun. So as long as I am still upright and can still walk, I’m going to go for walks with people. I love it.

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