Couple of things...
I seriously doubt that ‘Baier’ made the changes to the program. There’s a chain of command from the line producer(s) up to the executive producer and beyond that would have to sign off on said changes, and since Baier’s main background is NOT in anchoring (at least during his Fox tenure) it’s doubtful that he’s the source of the ‘new ideas’.
Second, the dropoff in gravitas between Hume and Baier is huge. I’m honestly quite surprised they didn’t replace Brit with either Jim Angle (good) or Brian Wilson (better). Bret is a decent guy, but is way too green (young) to be an anchor at that level.
I guess it could be worse—at least they didn’t choose Chris Wallace...he’s a terrible interviewer and even worse in a roundtable (panel) type setting. I thought once that Krauthammer was gonna leap out of his wheelchair and strangle Wallace when he kept cutting Charles off.
Brett hasn't nearly grown into Hume's boots, in my opinion.
The ratings are up, the brass {including Hume} love him, and his time slot kicks the crap out of the commie news network and pmsnbc...What more could anyone ask for?