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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and thanks for joining us. We're going to take a little riff on the news, highlight the stupid, because you know there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And then we're going to phone a friend. Actually, you're going to be sitting in person with this friend, because I'm actually recording this at the Fox News studios. And Todd Pyro, some of you may know him, some of you may not, but he is the host of Fox and Friends First.
Comes on really early. So for those of you on the West Coast, it's like really super late at night. But always on the East Coast, it comes on super early. I believe it's 4 to 6 a.m. in the morning. But you've seen Todd, and if you watch this, ever watch some of these YouTube videos and whatnot, Todd was the guy dancing like crazy when...
when Flowrider was playing at the concert series that Fox & Friends sponsors. And I'm really looking forward to it. You know, he's the kind of guy I keep bumping into in the halls, keep chatting. I see him on air at Fox, but I've never really kind of sat down and had a conversation with him. And he's a host here at Fox and I want to get to know him a little bit better. So we're going to sit down, rather than phone a friend, with Todd Pyro. And he's...
I'm really looking forward to that. But I want to kick things off by taking a little hot take on the news. And we try to bring you some things that maybe others aren't spending the proper time or
have the inclination to talk through. And one of the things I saw in the news was Supreme Court Justice Alito. He was overseas. I saw this on FoxNews.com. And the headline is Supreme Court Justice Alito hits back at foreign critics of abortion decision. Alito mocks foreign critics who denounce Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe versus Wade. And what's interesting about this, he was speaking in Rome yesterday.
He was at the Notre Dame Law School and around the globe, a lot of leaders probably don't understand our system, probably don't understand our law and don't necessarily understand the Supreme Court. And even UK Prime Minister, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he called the June ruling, quote, a step backwards. And, yeah.
I want to read some of the quotes from Alito because I think it's very, a very interesting perspective and his is a unique one.
He said, I had the honor this term of writing. I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on America law. And that's true. I think we've had probably foreign leaders comment here and there, but maybe not as much in chorus, in unison across the globe.
And he made this little joke about Boris Johnson and that, you know, that's the reason the people of the UK kicked him out. But no, this is what he went on to say, Justice Alito. But what really wounded me was when Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision made
whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine. Well, despite this temptation, I'm not going to talk about the cases from other countries. All I'm going to say is that ultimately, if we're going to win the battle to protect religious freedom in an increasingly secular society, we will need more than positive law.
And I think he makes a really, really, really interesting point. Alito said a major challenge for him is figuring out how to convince the increasing number of young Americans who do not identify with a religion that religious liberty is something that should be protected. And there are those of us, especially me and a host of others, that believe and understand, I think, that
It's so important to be able to protect this freedom. That freedom radiates out. And it doesn't just say, you hear some of these arguments. Oh, there's separation of church and state. That's not what the Constitution says. That's not what the Constitution says. That's not in the Constitution. What the First Amendment does is allows places of worship or religions to be able to speak out on issues that
but also not have just one religion that is perpetuated forward by a government. And the ability for religious institutions, religious organizations to have that free speech, who do believe in God and other ways of expressing that,
that they have the freedom that our founders believed was so critical. And it was so critical in the foundation of our country. And so you may be agnostic. You may be somebody who has decided that there isn't a God. That's fine. That's your individual right. But that doesn't mean there should be a suppression of religious liberties. It's really interesting to me because what I find is so many people who are –
The biggest proponents of diversity end up being the least diverse in their thinking that there can possibly be. I have run into that time and time again on multiple different issues. But on the issue of free speech, you would think we could be more united in making sure that, hey, if somebody wants to express that viewpoint, OK, fine.
And I think that's what Justice Alito is talking about and his being lambasted around the world. You know, there's even those that still believe that, hey, this decision by the Supreme Court was just, you know, we're going to wipe out the ability of a woman to get an abortion. It does not. It simply says that the states can make those decisions and that those decisions need to be the closest to the people.
that the original Roe versus Wade was a political decision by the court. It was not something that was enshrined in the Constitution. And I'm sure it'll be widely debated for a long period to come, but I thought Justice Alito's comments while he was overseas in Italy, it made a lot of sense and something that probably should have gotten a little bit more attention. I know there's a lot happening in the news, but... All right, let's transition because I want to talk about...
Something stupid. Because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. And I go right to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. They decided to change the definition or add a definition of the word female. And this is their entry. This is B under one. One B. Female. Having a gender identity that is the opposite of male.
Well, first of all, that is the lamest definition from somebody who's supposed to be an expert in definitions. That makes absolutely no sense to me here. Having gender identity is something that is new.
in terms of Merriam-Webster dictionary to just say, oh, it's the opposite of male. That doesn't necessarily define what it is either. But to jump to the conclusion that it's just how you identify is the definition of woman. Again, I don't think that is the right way to go. And I think they absolutely screwed it up.
Again, part of the argument, which I totally disagree with, and I'm trying to fully understand, but I just don't at this point, is that there are people that believe that you can have dozens, if not a hundred different identities and different genders along the way.
And so to say that it's simply the opposite of male kind of falls short of trying to define it. My guess is that some people who believe in sort of those radical ideas over there, they wouldn't necessarily agree with this either. And I certainly don't. And it should, if you can't define the female, the other definitions that Miriam Webster gives of, of relating to her being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs, um,
Anyway, it goes on from there. And I would think that it would be fairly simple. But gosh, how this country got into this discussion, I don't know. But Merriam-Webster, I'm sorry. I think what you're putting out there is changing the definition. Missed the mark with absolutely everybody on that spectrum. And that to me seems just a little bit stupid.
All right, time to move on. Time to give a phone a friend. And then, like I said, this time we're going to get a chance to talk with Todd Pyro in person. So let me transition to my sitting down with Todd Pyro.
Normally we phone a friend, but this time we're sitting face to face. So, Todd, thanks for joining us today on the Jason in the House podcast. Thank you for having me. Is this your house? Oh, yeah. As far as you're concerned, yeah. Your badge lets you into my house. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. No, this is the Fox studios. Oh, okay. Got it.
Yeah, you know, this is... I was wondering why my key card worked in your house. I thought that was odd. I had to turn it on, but it'll be turned off in about 30 minutes after you leave, so try not to use it again. No, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. You know, this is one of the fun things for me as part of the Fox family. You start bumping into people that you wouldn't normally otherwise spend time with and say hello along the way, and I'm glad our paths have crossed, so...
Likewise. When you said that just now, obviously we don't have a camera. I mean, my face was very stoic and serious, and I don't know why I emoted that. I should have been smiling and saying, thank you, Jason in the house for having me on your podcast. Well, it's very early in the morning. So you start early. This isn't early, brother. I mean, Fox and Friends first start. I mean, what time do you come into Fox? I roll in 2 a.m.
Literally 2 a.m. So what time do you have to try to go to bed? It is an exciting life I lead, Jason Chaffee. It's because, as you know, we got a 20-month-old and a one-month-old for all intents and purposes. So I have to do daddy duty. I'm not rolling to bed until 7.30, 8, and then I'm up.
before midnight because I need to shower, shave, get myself ready, come on into work. I don't live like around the corner. I'm not a city guy. I am not city folk. I am country folk. So I live in the country, albeit in Connecticut. So I got to come in and that trip takes a little time, even though there's nobody on the road. So yeah, I'm rocking a good three and a half to four hours of sleep a night. Try to get a nap during the day. Sometimes try to get a nap and
after my show, before I do other things. My plan was to do that today, before you and I decided to chat, but Fox & Friends needed a hit outside of a bodega for Mega Million. So, no nap today. It'll be the children and my wife that suffer when I go back home. Well, I hate to interrupt nap day,
or nap time too, but thanks for joining us. No, this was planned. This has been on the schedule for weeks now. I can plan around this. Yeah, but I don't normally do like an 8 a.m. podcast, but I...
No, I'm more like, hey, let's record this at like 2. This is what I was told. This is why I showed up at 8 a.m. We could have done 2. I could have stayed late. I wouldn't have stayed late. That was a politician answer. Yeah. Well, thank you. I'm learning. I learn from the best. I learn from change. Yes, yes. Well-
Well, let's talk about your journey to Fox and just kind of growing up. Because you didn't grow up. You said you weren't a city kid. You didn't grow up in New York City. Where were you born? I grew up in a far, far away land from here, Verona, New Jersey. It's literally about 25 minutes across the river. But-
You know, so I grew up with New York always in the background. Go to my grandparents, you'd hop on this main road called Upper Mountain Avenue and you'd see the beautiful New York City buildings in the distance. But, you know, we didn't really go in in the city because I'm an 80s kid.
This place was really dangerous in the 80s. You know, exactly like it is now. The city has changed. It really is dangerous. She's literally doing this live shot just now. We didn't have security just because we wanted to bang it out quickly. We didn't want a huge entourage approached by so many people. Everybody just wants you to give them a handout, and it's...
It's not the city it was just a few years ago. But again, it kind of is what it was in the 80s. And so anyway, you asked about my background. Grew up there, high school there, 1996. But wait, let's go back. You're like the only child? No, I have a brother. Do you have brothers, sisters? I have one brother. One brother, he works in human resources and makes a boatload of money. God bless him.
The Toby? Is he like Toby? No, no, no. He works for a major company. I shouldn't say. Yeah, you have this vision of, yeah, okay, Michael. Okay, no. That's not my bro. My brother works in like recruiting aspect of it. And boy, their company, I don't want to say it because I don't want to blow up his spot, but
They're like a casino. They win whether the economy's good and there are a lot of jobs or there aren't a lot of jobs because either way, they're playing the grift. So God bless him. He's going to be the one supporting my parents. So growing up, were you like... Did you guys play sports the whole time? Were you like, no, we were nerds playing chess? What were you doing? I was a nerd who played sports. My brother...
brother really wasn't in a category like he was smart he did okay in school but he wasn't didn't have to be number one like me like I had to be valedictorian or that was gonna be yeah that was literally my life's goal was to be valedictorian all this other stuff's gravy now but I also was big into sports I always felt bad like my brother never went to the games with my dad whereas you know we had Giants tickets we had Devils because I'm a hockey guy we had Nets because allegedly they were a basketball team in the 80s in New Jersey and
So I would always end up going. My brother had no interest, still has no interest. He went to Villanova for college, right? Amazing basketball program. They were rocking in basketball back then. Scott, that's his name. How many players can you name? Crickets. Crickets.
And his wife went to Villanova, too. Don't know anything. But anyway, so I'm the big sports guy. I played all the sports, soccer, baseball in high school, a little tennis, basketball before high school. I'm a horrible basketball player. But you know what my major regret sports wise in life is? Not playing hockey.
That's my dream. Well, you know, you can do that here on the East Coast. And a lot of places, that's not even an option. True. I could do it logistically, climate-wise, as you're referring, kid-wise. With two under 20 months, there ain't no hockey. If I'm up at 3 o'clock in the morning, it's either for this job or for feeding or because a kid is losing her you-know-what because she had a bad dream and doesn't know how to console herself.
By the way, it may sound like I don't enjoy being a parent. I love it. It's the greatest job in the world. But, you know, this has been a rough week, Chafe. It's been a rough week. Yeah, well, you know, definitely.
That is a tough schedule to get up as early as you do. But you throw so much energy into it. I got to tell you, I have forever ingrained in my brain what was going on with Flowrider because you really let loose. Can I explain how this all went down? How much time do we have? Because there actually is a whole lead up. Oh, we got time. I don't know if I've ever told the actual story in a broadcast format. Yeah, let's hear it. So-
the Fox and Friends summer concert series schedule comes out. Right. And you're always curious. It comes out like what? April? May? Yeah. You kind of get where you want to be in town for. And it's like, you know, okay, Lee Greenwood.
Foreigner. I was excited about foreigner. Some 80s rockers, right? Yeah. Country singers, you know, some people that you know, you're Christian rock. Wait, who's that? Flo Rida. What does that say? Flo Rida. July 8th. I got the biggest red marker that I could find and I circled that. Unfortunately, what a horrible way to begin that. We were having a baby.
And so I did not know if I was going to make it back from the birth for Flo Rida. So of course, being the dutiful husband I am, I asked my wife to have the baby as soon as possible. And she obliged so that my couple of weeks off coincided with Flo Rida's Fox and Friends appearance. So literally my first day back, July 6th, Flo Rida, July 8th. I made it just in time. And so in the lead up to all this, I'm thinking to myself, okay,
This is going to be my real one concert for the year because I got stuff to do. I got to do the Jason Chaffetz podcast at 8 a.m. on a Friday. You know, I got things to do. So I said, we're going to go all out for this one. So I'm going to come up with the dance. If you've seen the movie Tropic Thunder, there's a dance from Les Grossman is the character played by Tom Cruise dressed up in this fat suit with horrible hair all over the place. It's a hysterical dance. If you research it, he actually spent a year working on it.
It's amazing how much time I'm a huge Tom Cruise fan. That guy, it sounds like something you would do, right? You work on it for a year to hit it just the way it should. So I, of course, did not work on it for a year. I worked on it for 10 minutes, but I said, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to go out there and when he's playing in the breaks, I'm going to go out there and
I'm going to do the Flo Rida, Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder dance. So I asked AJ, who's in charge of the concerts, for the set list to find out what time. And he said it's going to be around 8. So I'm like, this is perfect. I'll do my 8 o'clock, make it for Instagram, and then I'll hit the train before everything gets crazy at the end. I'll go home. I'll do the kid thing, and it'll be fine.
Little did I know that concert and that whole experience out there on that Friday was an amazing experience. I don't mean to get too, I don't know, gushy over this, but we've been through a lot as a country over the last couple of years. Not a lot of laughing, not a lot of moments where people were just in the moment enjoying life. And this guy, Flo Rida, gets up there.
And when I tell you, he did not stop performing for a good two hours. He was playing commercial break, non-commercial break. He just kept going and going and going. It was an amazing environment. Old, young, black, white, women, men, child, everybody was just happy. Can you think of a moment in the last two years where you walked into a scene where everybody was just happy?
So I stuck around because this is not something that we've experienced. It was a beautiful moment. I wanted to enjoy it. He's going into the crowd, even told the crowd at one point, I do this because I love to make people happy. I did not realize Flo Rida was this deep. I was just thought, hey, here's the guy who makes music from the movies in the 2000s that I liked.
way different than that it was an amazing experience so I decided to stick around so I stick around and make closer and closer to the stage I made my videos the videos were horrible you can look them up online not very good so I get closer and closer what is the Instagram account uh
At Todd.Pyro. Okay. I went crazy. I went real original there. Yeah, yeah. Okay. People can find that at Todd.Pyro. P-I-R-O. And so I get closer to the stage. And typically it's the main cast that goes on. So I asked Gavin, who's the guy in charge of Fox and Reuters. I was like, can I go up there? He's like, sure. It doesn't matter. It's going on Fox Nation.
So I get up there. And what does he do? He plays low again. This is after he played it in the 8 a.m. hour. This is now like 8.56 in the commercial break. He plays it. Something came over me, Jason Chaffetz.
The music took over me. I got low, pants split. It was a beautiful moment that brought the nation together and was utilized on Fox & Friends multiple times throughout the weekend in montages, and then again on Monday because people couldn't let it go. Yeah, and if you haven't seen the video, you've got to go find this video because it really is fun. And it is amazing to me that this is happening in the 8 a.m. hour. These concerts sometimes, hey, we'll start at 10 p.m. and then they get rocking, but...
But Flo Riders is a special personality because to be able to get going at seven something in the morning and just really let it loose. And he's got a great following and more power to him. If he can have people rocking and dancing and having fun like that. And I just love that you cut loose and made it a thing.
It's really a warning to 44-year-old men who are of a dad bod that maybe they should be a little bit more cognizant of themselves, their weight, and their overall visage. When in public, I probably shouldn't have gotten as low as I got, Jason Chaffetz, but it is what it is. You're inspirational. Come on. Come on. This is what we all aspire to right there.
If I'm inspiration, you need to seek out a higher source. Let me tell you, there's other people out there you should be going to. No, it's contagious. People want to be around people that are fun and that they like and that are having a good time. So I thought it was awesome. And that's what that experience was. Not about me. People wanted to be around Flo Rye. They want to be around his hype man, who was the greatest name ever. International nephew is his hype man's name. I mean, the greatest name in the world.
You're listening to Jason and the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Todd Pyro right after this.
Let's figure out how did you get to this place where you're going up on stage with Flo Rida. So you you you growing up, you're playing sports. You got this sounds like a pretty, you know, great families all going together. And then when you get done with high school or you're in high school, you're
And you have to start thinking about that moment about, hey, what am I going to do? Like, where is life taking me? Did you have a clear vision for that? Or did you just like, oh, I just next I go to 10th grade, then I go to 11th grade, then I go, then I graduate. I mean, then what? I always had a plan. And God laughs at our plans. I understand that. But I always knew I wanted to do something different.
Broadly in this field. But I don't mean necessarily like... But why? I don't know. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that my mom really...
really enjoyed watching local news. And so I... So when you were having meals like dinner time, did mom have the TV on? WABC7 was always on in the background. Yeah. See, when I was growing up, I remember like 60 minutes was like a big deal. Like the whole family would gather around the television to watch 60 minutes. And I learned a lot. I was a little kid, but that's what mom and dad were doing. So that's what I did. And
Things like that. I remember reading the newspaper. My parents put the newspaper. Kids listen to this podcast. They don't even know what a newspaper is these days. And that's sad because I like to read the Star-Ledger there in Jersey as well. And as I got older, The Post.
Nod to our corporate cousin. But yeah, I just always had an interest in this world. And I think I loved the fast pace of it. Fast pace of it. Or at least, you know, when you're watching as a high school, you're thinking, oh, that's something interesting. I'd like to get into it. You have no clue ultimately what it is. You're just kind of saying, oh, that's fun. You know, just like every middle school is like, well, I want to be a baseball player. They don't know all that goes into it. So when I went to college, I...
I definitely paid to go to college, Dartmouth college, Hanover, New Hampshire. So I definitely painted with a broad brush. I was pre-med pre-law. Uh, I had a film and pre-law. Well, this is when I first got there. And then the weeding out process, you know, so let's, let's back that train up. I was pre-med until organic chemistry. And when that nice F plus was greeting me in organic chemistry, that's when a pre-med went out, went out the door. So, uh,
And, you know, then obviously things get crystallized. I did well in the pre-law classes, your government, your poli-sci classes. Did the film stuff, but I knew I wasn't a thespian. I wasn't a dramatic person. I think there are important skills that I learned, you know, editing point A to point B to point C, trying to tell a story. And I think that that was useful for both this business, but also for my career as a lawyer. We'll get to that in a second. Right.
So I'm glad I did it. I was never going to be like Francis Ford Coppola. That's not my journey. I do not have that creative bone. But during those experiences, during my college experience, I did a lot of internships in news.
at WABC7, at Good Morning America, and at this upstart called the Fox News Channel. We report, you decide. Wow. So, I mean. Full circle. This network started in the 80s, and so you showed up as an intern. Who were you? What was your intern role? Isn't that an interesting question? Because now you are here as this place is very organized, very structured. The facilities are not nicer. Yes. This place started in 96. I was an intern in 98.
Okay. They were still figuring it out. I'll always remember the amazing intern coordinator. She was great, but it's not like you were assigned to a show like you are now. You weren't like, hey, you're going to go work for Bill Hemmer or John Hannity or somebody. No. I was assigned to the downstairs newsroom. Do you remember that place? Yes. You remember that? So I would float. If somebody needed something, I'd do it. And it was obviously a non-union shop. Yeah.
And they were still figuring out. So they didn't have tons of people. So I got to do a lot. I got to interview people. They would send me out on the street to actually get the man on the street interviews. That's how you learn to interview people. And I got so many great experiences. I would write scripts for certain people that are no longer here. I don't want to say their names. Write scripts for national television. Like as an intern, I probably shouldn't have been doing that. I would never let an intern write my script.
in 2022, but it was a different place in 1998. So I got a lot of great experience. And then of course the next logical step, apply to law school. Yeah, of course. I mean, that's the natural evolution that everybody takes, right? So where did you go to law school? West, as a West Coaster yourself, I went to UCLA. I've heard of it. It's a little school. I've heard it's an up and coming school. I think the Bruins are, yeah, that's, yes.
Well, that's a little bit further away from home. It is. What was it? Was it because of their football team or their baseball team or something? Amazing question. You know, I always wanted to try L.A. And I know L.A. is kind of a rough place right now, but I always wanted to try it. L.A. Law? Was that... No, I mean, that show was a little bit older than me. That show was more like 1984. I was like six. Show them my colors there, yes. Sorry, brother. But...
I just wanted to try it. And I knew that if I didn't go to L.A. when I was 22, I was never going there. Because, I mean, D.C. and New York are next to each other. I kind of had a hunch. Yeah, you get on the train, you go there for the day, you can come back. But if I didn't go to L.A. and try that, I figured law school is a great opportunity. I did not.
want to go start out in local news in some really, really tiny market in the middle of the country. My college was in a tiny market, what I consider in the middle of the country, New Hampshire. So that wasn't for me. I'm not a city guy, but I'm also not like, let me go as far away from the city as possible. I'm a suburb guy. I grew up in the suburbs. I like suburbs. You're not doing Bismarck. Exactly. So, I absolutely loved UCLA. Why I picked UCLA, honestly, it was cheap.
Great school, best school I got into, and cheap.
Wow. So $40,000 for all three years in total. Wow. Yeah. You try doing that now. No. At UCLA, you can't do that now. Now, there's a lot of distractions out there in Los Angeles. Tell me more, Jason Chavis. Sunshine and sports. Would you believe? I went to the beach three total times during my 12 years in California. I was working. I was studying to be a lawyer. And then I was a lawyer. Hey, if that's your answer, we'll go with it. I'm serious. Yeah. That's amazing. Because, yeah, the beach is pretty enticing. And it's very close, too. It is. It is.
especially when you live in Santa Monica. It was 20 blocks away. But, you know, look, if you take away one thing from this, I'd like it to be, yeah, that pirate guy, he's nice and funny. But two, I work really hard and I believe in hard work. I worked hard as a law student. I worked hard as a lawyer. And I like to think I work pretty hard now. OK, so you're getting to the end of law school. Yes, sir. Now, what are you going to do?
I did what everybody else does. And there was a three pronged approach why I did it. One, you know, I ultimately knew I didn't want to go into this business. And when you start out in this business, you're not making any money. So I knew I could sort of, you know, fill the coffers for a couple of years at a big time law firm, which is what I did. Wanted a backup plan because this business is fickle.
Right. There's only so many spots. Exactly. And three, it's a good degree to have for this business. At least that's what I thought. And quite frankly, it is. I think a large part of the reason I'm here was that third prong, was the fact that, yeah, I feel like everybody here has a law degree, but-
It helps you get in the door here. And so I'm very thankful for it. But yes, I did go the big firm route, Summer Associate, that whole deal, and ended up working at a New York-based firm, but in their L.A. office. Oh, OK. So you stayed in L.A. for a little bit. Yes, sir.
So how, when did you make the transition to do something in the media world? If you remember, I said I did those internships. Well, part of the internships is getting experience, but it's also making connections. Yeah, meeting the people. And I kept up with those connections throughout the course of my time. One of them, I'm waiting for this other person to walk through the door any moment. She was one of the people that I kept up the connections with. She now works at Fox Weather, just the absolute craziest thing in the world. Yeah.
But I kept up my connections at all these places and was able to make my resume tape through these individuals. So for W.A.B.C. 7, for example, the ABC flagship. Big, big, big, big, big show. Yeah. When I would come back home for weddings, because that's the time of your life in your 20s. Yeah. Late 20s people get married. I would take another day off from the law and go into the city and shoot my resume tape.
And so little by little, there's so many weddings, able to compile a resume tape so that when I was able to pull the trigger in early 2008, I had a resume tape. I didn't have to start from scratch. Sent the resume tape out. Quit the job in April of 2008. And soon thereafter, three weeks, started at KPSP Local 2 in Palm Springs, California. Really? Yes, sir. And what was your role? I started as, I find whenever I'm brought in, it's like, we don't have a role for you, but we want you in the building. Right.
So I was... That's a good sign, but it makes it hard on day one, right? Semi-weekend anchor, weekday reporter. But I also had to produce the weekend newscast, which is great because, you know...
Yeah. I had a lot of producing experience up until that point. You didn't miss anything. I had zero producing experience up to that point, but it's small market, local news. Figure it out. So that's what we did, and I did that for about a year before my co-anchor and I were named morning anchors there out of KPSP. We did that for three years, and-
After 12 years total in California, four years Palm Springs, eight years LA, I missed my family. It was time to come home. And so how'd you make that transition? I mean, something's got to open up, right? You started throwing the resume out there and the tape around, and what popped for you? The agent got me NBC Connecticut. Really? And we figured, yeah, Connecticut's close enough to Jersey. My brother and my cousin are in the city, so...
We'll go to Connecticut. And day one, saw my wife. I can't say I met my wife because that implies that like we got married on day two. But I saw this lady in a blue dress and I was like, ah. Yeah, it got your attention, right? Woke me up and, you know.
Time passed, and a couple months later, asked her out, and the rest is history. Very good. So how did you make the transition to Fox? What was the opportunity here? My news director, one of my news directors in local news at NBC Connecticut, he went to the Chicago news.
Fox station, the Fox own own station in Chicago. Matt Piacente is his name. He's a, I owe basically everything to Matt Piacente. I was Matt's guy. Matt was my guy. You know, you just have a boss that you just click with and, uh, but his whole family's in Chicago, his kids in Chicago. So he ended up taking that gig and, uh,
push came to shove, I said, "Hey Matt, I think my time at the Peacock has run its course both nationally and locally." So I said, "Can you see what you can do at Fox?" Because at that point, I know I was an intern here, but at some point the connection strength, it only goes so far. When you want to get an on-air gig at the Fox News Channel, you need to be in a higher stratosphere. And Matt's obviously talking to the people that matter here at Fox. And so one thing led to another.
Gave my tape, my resume tape to the people that mattered. And I had three consecutive Thursdays of interviews. So hopped on the Metro North train from Connecticut into the city. Boom, boom, boom. And why do you think you got the...
Got the job, got the gig where others didn't. I know why I got it. And it's the thing that makes me unique, not to this place, but I think unique in this business. But it's what this place goes for. This place loves you to be yourself. That's the number one thing that they tell you they want you to do. And it's the number one thing our audience responds to.
And although that can be difficult because I'm a lot to take, just ask my wife, by and large, the audience, at least with regard to me, tolerates it enough that they've kept me on here now greater than five years. But all joking aside, that's what makes this place special. Whereas a lot of times you're watching other people on TV and it's like, you can tell they're putting on airs. That's not necessarily them. Basically, I mean, you can, I think you agree. Everybody in this building is exactly how they are on TV off air. Right.
for better or for worse. And it's that authenticity that I think got me hired. It's what gets other people hired here. And it's what our audience likes and it's what the people here like. And it makes it so much easier. You don't have to put on a show. This is me. If you like it, great. Stay with us. If you don't like it, tune out. But you get to be yourself. You're 100% right. Because I remember I signed the deal with Fox and then I met with Jay Wallace, who's a
a president around here, a pretty important person. And I said, well, listen, I don't know what I don't know. So tell me what I need to know. What's the number one thing you need me to do? And he thought about it for a moment. And then he just said, he said, don't feel like you have to do, you don't have to agree with the president. You don't have to disagree with the president. Just be you. Just, we want authenticity. Authenticity kind of sells the day around you. And it was kind of exactly what you figured out as well.
And I've never had anybody at Fox ever suggest, hey, we want you to do this or say that. Or if I say something that maybe pushes the limits a little bit, I've never had anybody call me up and say, hey, can we maybe massage that a little bit? I've never had that conversation. It's very refreshing. And you're right. I think ultimately that's why the audience responds to it. Because I go out in the...
meet people all across the country and a lot of times they say, well, did Fox do this? I'm like, no, absolutely not. There's no way. Do you think they're telling Sean Hannity what to say and how to say it? And he's been here the longest. So, no, that's just...
We had a very similar experience that way. I think everybody has that experience. And I think that's what makes this place so special. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, congratulations on making that. And then, boy, you know, you're obviously feeling very comfortable if you're getting up on the stage of a flow rider and letting it rip like you did. Again, letting it rip wasn't my intended goal, Jason Javis. It ripped on its own because that's one of my objections with Fox. Can I talk shop here? Yeah, sure. Sure.
I am not a tight-clothes guy. And when I first got here, I saw what the scene was and all the guys were in the tight, and I don't want to say tight-fitting. It makes it sound like we're in spandex. But the form-fitting clothes. So I got my suits tailored. And this is one pair of pants I probably shouldn't have gotten tailored because, you know, much like you, we come from the kicking arts. You were a kicker in college. I was a first-team all-conference soccer goalie. So I have a meaty leg, Jason Chaffetz.
So, unfortunately, when a meaty leg meets sweat and flow right of dancing, none of those, and pants that were probably compromised to begin with, it's a bad scene. And then you have the rip. So, I'm now asking Wardrobe to give me a little bit more room in the leg department. Well, that's good. I think we would all benefit from it. The nation would. Yes, the nation would really appreciate going that direction. I got to tell you, there are a lot of people, I think, that listen to this show that,
And there are a lot of lessons that particularly like young people need to learn or will learn somehow, some way. But this whole idea of being a mentor and finding somebody who's actually done something. And as I kind of hear you tell your story, there are some people along the way that helped you get to where you need to go. And I've tried to at least with my own kids to try to encourage them and say, look, I
Dad will help you all he can. But you need to find somebody who's doing what you want to do and look at what they've done and how they've done it. And it sounds like you had that same experience. Not only that, but you also need the people that are in the right positions to get you where you need to go. Now, I'm not saying only cherry pick people who can do things for you. That's not life. And that gets snuffed out real quick. Yeah. Again, the authenticity about not using somebody to step...
to the next stone, but to actually with sincerity in your heart say, hey, what can I do? How do I do this? What advice can you give me? I mean, I'm amazed. Like I have hired hundreds of people through my career, business side, congressional side, very few ever have that, has ever had that conversation with me.
Just ask because the worst thing somebody can say is no. And you know what? Even getting a no is going to be helpful because in life, I don't care who you are. Elon Musk gets a lot of no's. Bill Gates got a lot of no's. Everybody gets no's. You have to be ready and prepared to deal with it. And that trains you for the next step. One thing I would say from a mentorship perspective is we did my timeline. You need to do these things regularly.
Early on. You need to try and fail as much as possible early on because when you reach my age, I'm 44 now, two kids, there's not a lot of room for error. There's not a lot of time for error. I can't tell my wife, oh, you know, I changed my mind. I want to be an actor now.
We're taking the kids who are moving to a one bedroom shack in West Hollywood. That doesn't work. That's not reality. Some people maybe, God bless you. I don't think you're listening to the Jason in the house podcast here. But you are young. Hopefully you have made good financial decisions. Hopefully you're not killed with student loan debt.
And hopefully you can take that opportunity to try and fail. Hey, you may not fail, but even if you do fail, you've tried that thing and you've learned life lessons that will help you succeed at something. Well, I think, and I think other people want to help people. I think it's a natural, I mean, the people, if you're asking the right people, they're, they're, they're inclined to want to help you. But,
It's that authenticity. I just keep coming back to it that I think just permeates. People want to be around who they like, who they know, who they enjoy, and that are happy people. And you're happy people. You're not.
Not always. I mean, look, part of the authenticity is when I get home. Maybe not at 3.30 in the morning, but you know. No, no. 3.30 is when I am the happiest. 3.30 in the afternoon is when I go into that shell and my wife says, my wife literally describes that you die. I will stumble around the house like I've got long COVID, like bumping into the walls. She tells me something, I just give her that blank look. And as you might imagine, a wife gets upset with that normally because, you know, men don't listen, but I really don't listen. And they get cranky. Yeah, I'm
I'm a human. Four hours is not a normal amount of sleep. If I don't get that nap, I am not happy-go-lucky Todd. But you try to limit that. The kids smack that out of you real good. You realize you have a higher purpose. You find that extra gear for the little ones, especially when they're pulling your hair and kicking you and just making you laugh. Well, I hope people get a chance to
Watch your show and sometimes maybe need to even tape it because it's particularly on the West Coast. It's on really, really early. Two?
No, wait. 1 to 3 a.m. on the West Coast. Yeah, so a lot of people are still up. Like, I was talking to Tommy Lahren, and I'm like, how do you do some of these hits, Tommy? And this is when she was living back in California, and I think now she's in Tennessee. And she said, I just stay up. And I said, I have tried that. I cannot just stay up. Like, I must be getting too old. Like, I used to never even go to bed until 1.30, 2 o'clock in the morning. Like, that was just like...
But now, it's hard. Well, Tommy, to her credit, every Tuesday, she is in that 5 a.m. Eastern hour. She doesn't miss unless she's on vacation. There's never a missed hit time. There's never a problem. She's the most professional person. She's always there. And she's up, ready to go. And she brings it every single week. Oh, yeah. You know, to be around, not to gravitate too much, but...
Tommy is, like you said, same person off the air that she is on there. She's really adamant about what she believes in. And you know that she's talking from her heart and from her core. Now, we also take that to a different level. When it comes to sports, I am...
what my core tells me to be, and that is an a-hole. So when my Giants are losing, I am not a nice person. You don't want to watch me. You don't want to interview Todd Pyro when the Giants are losing. You'd be like, wow, I have a completely different take on him. He's a horrible human being. Are you a face painter? No. Like when you go to a hockey game, are you wearing the face paint? I'm not like Putty from Seinfeld, no. But I get very angry. I yell a lot. Yeah.
And I'm not pleasant to be around. I'm just I'm calling like it is. Football is not fun for me. The Giants make me question all of my life choices on a day in and day out basis. And yeah, so I'm not fun. But again, that's the authenticity. It's not all, you know, sunshine and rainbows. Well, that sounds like Giants football in general. There's 50,000 people doing exactly what you're doing. Do you have a team for pro? Not really. You know, that's a funny thing because I live in Utah, right?
And so either doing, you know, the Raiders or because they're in Vegas now, they're the closest. But a lot of people support the Broncos. Some people do the 49ers. I kind of grew up with doing the 49ers and Raiders. That's that's those are the teams that we like. But I don't.
I don't know. You're BYU on the Saturday slot, right? For me, it's like some of the people, right? Like the people that I know. Because I did. I was a place kicker back in the day. So if there's somebody from our school or somebody that I had played with, now I'm getting too old. Ty Detmer. Ty Detmer, yeah. I mean, he won the Heisman Trophy and I was the place kicker. So I had five school records when I graduated. They were all extra point records.
which is much more of a testament to the quarterback than it is actually to the kicker. And he was a great quarterback. Yeah. We scored so many touchdowns. It was crazy how much we were lighting up the scoreboard. But, you know, people like that. And so when you see, like, Zach Wilson, you're like, okay, come on, man. That's a whole other topic. Don't go there. Can we please do the Zach Wilson discussion? Can I...
I don't know. I will let you decide if we can or not. If you want to go there, I can. But we have a producer. You lit up. I wish people could see his face. We have a producer who's our line producer on my show. And he's a huge Jets fan. And every morning, can I say this? I'm trying to get cues for you. Sure, go ahead. Every morning, I go, hey, Anthony, did Zach Wilson hit on your mom today? Did Zach Wilson hit on your mom today? Every morning.
It's the best story of the year. We don't know the answer to that, really. You don't know. But he's a good-looking kid, allegedly. I'll be the news story person here. There are rumors, unverified, that Zach Wilson had a dalliance with his mom's friend. You know what I was fascinated about? That question gets asked to him, right? He's at the jet ski. They ask him the question, and he says, tell him the punchline, what he says. He basically goes back and he says...
Well, I'm just trying to do everything I can to make this team better. And I'm like, you could have said no. You could have actually just said no. Next question. But he didn't do that. Next, he's going to try to redefine what a recession is. But this is the great thing.
It is the greatest story. Because, again, to try to do the visual, and I know he's your quarterback. He's a BYU guy, and I apologize for being up on a BYU. You don't need to apologize. But he looks like he's eight years old. Okay? Yeah, he's a good-looking kid, but he looks like a kid. He doesn't look like a...
A weathered John Elway, right? It just does not kind of fit that mold. John Elway. Or Dan Marino or something. John Elway came out of the womb looking like he was 47. But he looks like a little boy and his mom is, is she younger than me? Maybe. I mean, his mom's really young. So from an opportunity perspective, it could match up.
Age-wise. But from a humor perspective, it's the greatest story. And you've been in locker rooms. You know that this story is just making the Jets' locker room the place to be. His teammates must be unleashed on this guy. Especially, you know, okay, he's turning the corner into his second season, but as a rookie, he must have just been... I mean, they are unrelenting in a locker room. There's no way those DBs are letting that go without just...
I mean, the humor that must come out of that locker room must be. And this isn't the backup punter role. This is the role that was once held by Joe Namath. Of the New York Jets. You're the starting quarterback. They may be one of the worst teams, but they're always the highest profile team. Anyway. All right. We got off the rails there. And you're right. I did light up like a Christmas tree when you said the story. The smile that came out of Todd's face was just unbelievable.
You're listening to Jason in the House. Stay with us. We'll be right back. All right. Hey, we got to wrap this up with some quick questions here. And we always do these rapid questions. So are you ready? Yes. First concert you attended?
Oh, no, I don't want to. Paula Abdul with a Color Me Bad opener. Yes. I feel bad for my dad to this day that we dragged a middle-aged man to Color Me Bad opening for Paula Abdul. Sorry, Dad. Sweet. That is a great item on your resume. Because I had a crush on Paula Abdul. What was your high school mascot? Oh.
Horrible mascot. The hillbilly. That's not a joke. In New Jersey? Yep, because we lived on a hill. Are they still the hillbillies?
I think so. No, I think they changed. No, they still have the Hillbillies, but they removed the jug of moonshine from the logo, I think, if I'm remembering correctly. It is a great game if you go around to somebody and you get 12 people together and say, what's your high school mascot? Inevitably, somebody's going to be the Hillbillies. So stupid. Like, we're 25 minutes outside the city, but Hillbillies is what we are. The New Jersey Hillbillies.
All right. Well, we know who your first celebrity crush was. What's your favorite vegetable? No, you don't. I liked Paul Abdul, but my first celebrity crush, same church, different pew, Debbie Gibson. Oh, yeah. Love Debbie Gibson. All right. Huge Debbie Gibson. I can understand that. A lot of kids were in that same boat. Also at the same time, Heather Locklear and TJ Hooker.
Okay. So truth be told, I get on a plane one time. I'm married. I'm happily married. I'm not looking or doing anything, but I go and I sit down in my, I got upgraded to first class sitting right next to me, Heather Locklear. And she was super nice. But I'm like, and I just played it cool. Like I didn't know who she was, but I know exactly where she is. And, and
Anyway, she was very nice. She was very nice. But I was... By the way, on the Heather in the House podcast that I've listened to multiple times, she tells a story of sitting next to this congressman from Utah. It's a beautiful story. She was like, I saw this guy. It's the guy I admired on the... Watching C-SPAN for all those years. And I sat next to him. I didn't want to like get too, you know, fangirly. It's a great story. You mentioned something. When I was...
I decided to leave Congress and I came in and I talked to Fox and they kind of gave me the, why should we hire you? And the answer I gave them was, well, I did host the number one show on C-SPAN. And they thought that that was the funniest answer. I mean, I already did host the number one show on C-SPAN, the oversight committee. All right, we got to keep going fast. If you met Bigfoot, what would you ask him? Where do you live?
And why don't you come out and play more? Yeah. It's good. You're a hillbilly. He's probably more apt to give you the interview than anybody else. If you can meet one person dead or alive throughout history and say, hey, honey, guess what?
Uh, let's get a nice dinner together. Cause we got somebody coming over. Who would that be? I would want to meet, uh, my dad's dad, uh, died in 1965. My dad was in his early twenties. Obviously I was born 13 years later. Um, I heard he was very funny. I heard we had a, we have a lot of similar characteristics. Um, he died at 45 years old. That's too young. I would like to meet him and just see why he was funny. Great answer. Um,
Pineapple on pizza? Yes or no? Yes. I don't mind it. Any pizza is good. I like Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers. Good pizza, bad pizza, it doesn't matter. It's pizza, baby. I just have a problem with wet fruit on pizza. But anyway, best advice you ever got? I find myself coming back to this from my dad a lot. People can be tricky. And just not be on your guard, but just, you know,
People can do weird things during the course of their lives. It was the overall. It wasn't like this one thing that you put on a bumper sticker, but just people can do weird things and they may surprise you in a negative way. So just be prepared. Don't trust everybody implicitly. I think I'm a trusting guy, but I think you have a little bit of skepticism every now and again. Not for Jason Japheth. You can trust him. Well, thank you. Thank you.
Thanks for joining us on the Jason and us podcast. I really do appreciate it. Because as a married man, I'm not allowed to talk about myself ever anymore. So this was a nice opportunity to talk about myself for 45 minutes. No, it's great. You do great things. You bring great energy to it. And I'm just glad to get to know you a bit better. And thanks for joining us today. In the words of Zach Wilson, I'm just glad to get to know you a little bit better. And that is the end of this podcast. Thank you. All right.
Well, thanks for listening to the Jason Nows podcast. I can't thank Todd enough for spending the time. It really was fun. And I really, I seriously, if you were sitting here, I wish you could have seen his face light up when we started talking about the quarterback for the New York Jets. We went to like DEFCON, I don't know, 10 with him on that one. He was smiling, always happy no matter when and where you see Todd. He's always a happy warrior, smiling, good guy, always
But, man, when you start talking about the New York Jets, he just lit up. But next time we do a podcast with Todd Pryor, start with the New York Jets, and you'll have even a better experience. It was a good, fun exchange, and I wish him nothing but the best. He's just one of the good people, and I hope I get the chance to know him even better and spend more time with him and his family and his two kids. He works hard, that's for sure. Thanks again for listening to the Jason in the House podcast.
Hope you can review it, subscribe to it. You can go over to foxnewspodcast.com to find other similar types of podcasts that you might enjoy. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.
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