WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fox Corp said on Friday its Fox Soul streaming network would broadcast an interview with U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday for the NFL Super Bowl after all, hours after the White House said it had been canceled.
“After the White House reached out to FOX Soul Thursday evening, there was some initial confusion. FOX Soul looks forward to interviewing the president for Super Bowl Sunday,” said a spokesperson for Fox.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier in a tweet that Biden had been looking forward to an interview with Fox Soul but “we’ve been informed that Fox Corp has asked for the interview to be canceled.”
Fox Soul is a streaming channel that describes itself on its website as “unapologetically Black” and is operated by a subsidiary of Fox Corp.
A presidential interview with the network broadcasting the National Football League championship game has been a staple for years.
Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch was deposed last month under oath as part of a defamation lawsuit over his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 U.S. presidential election that Biden won.
Conservative-leaning Fox News has been sharply critical of Biden’s presidency and Democrats.
Variety.com predicted the audience watching the Fox broadcast of the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs could surpass 100 million people.
Biden’s wife, first lady Jill Biden, is planning to attend the game in Glendale, Arizona. Biden told Noticias Telemundo on Thursday that he will watch it at home with servings of guacamole and chocolate chip ice cream.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Heather Timmons and Cynthia Osterman)
