Ex-Fox host’s CNBC debut on Sept. 30

Shepard Smith now has a date for his return behind the anchor desk.

The longtime Fox News host will launch his new CNBC show, “The News With Shepard Smith,” on Sept. 30, the network announced Monday.

“In my more than 30 years in journalism, there has never been a better or more critical time to launch a nonpartisan, fact-based evening newscast,” Smith (inset) said in a statement.

“From the ongoing pandemic to the election and the economy, the mission of this program is to cover the most important news of the day with depth and clarity. Each night, we will be bold, we will be direct and we will deliver the truth to our viewers.”

The one-hour show will air live nightly at 7 p.m. from CNBC’s Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and promises “deep, nonpartisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories,” as well as “on-theground reporting … and expert guests.”

“‘The News With Shepard Smith’ will deliver the day’s news that goes well beyond headlines and political punditry,” Dan Colarusso, CNBC’s senior vice president of business news, said in a statement. “We are going to tell stories and show images that make sense of an increasingly complicated world.”

Before his surprising departure in October, Smith, 56, spent more than 20 years in front of the Fox News logo, where he helped launch the network in 1996. But his displeasure with other hosts over their pro-Trump stances, particularly Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, was apparent.

“I wonder,” he told Time magazine in 2018, “if I stopped delivering the facts, what would go in its place in this place that is most watched, most listened, most viewed, most trusted? I don’t know.”