Breathe easy, Jon Stewart. It's looking like the satire program billed as Fox News Channel's answer to The Daily Show will combine the timeliness of Newsweek with the incisive wit of Mallard Fillmore. So far, Fox has taped two episodes of The Half-Hour News Hour, as the show is being called. (Its working title, This Just In, had to be scrapped, as AOL has a broadband channel with that name.)

Producer Joel Surnow, whose credits also include 24, has described the show as a cross between Comedy Central's Daily Show and Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment. A source who attended the tapings describes the format as far more similar to the latter, with a two-anchor setup and skits interspersed with the talking-head segments. "It was hit and miss—some stuff was inspired, and some was droppable, to say the least," says the source. Not surprisingly, he adds, most of the jokes had a conservative slant.

Comedians Kurt Long and Susan Yeagley share anchor duties, and toss to a cast of correspondents that includes original Daily Show cast member Brian Unger. Guests so far have included Rush Limbaugh (who bragged about appearing in a skit as the president, with Ann Coulter as his vice president), comedian Dom Irrera, and original Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall. While early reports on the show promised a January debut, as of now, no air date has been set.