# Blaze TV [[Glenn Beck]]'s conservative media network, originally launched as GBTV in 2011 and rebranded as TheBlaze, then Blaze TV. It merged with CRTV (Conservative Review TV) in 2018 to form a larger conservative streaming platform. Blaze TV operates across streaming, radio, and podcasting, positioning itself as a faith-and-patriotism-centered alternative to mainstream media. ## Glenn Beck and the Founding Glenn Beck built his media brand at CNN Headline News and then [[Fox News]], where his 5pm show reached 3M+ viewers before Fox cancelled it in 2011 amid advertiser boycotts. Rather than accept diminished influence at another network, Beck launched his own subscription streaming service — one of the earliest examples of a conservative media figure building a direct-to-audience platform to escape corporate media constraints. Beck's brand blends libertarian-conservative politics, Mormon faith, American exceptionalism, and conspiratorial framing (he pioneered "chalkboard" explainer segments connecting progressive movements to communist plotters). His early opposition to Trump (he backed [[Ted Cruz]]) made him an outlier in 2016, and his audience dipped; he later reconciled his position with the MAGA era. ## CRTV Merger In 2018, TheBlaze merged with CRTV (Conservative Review TV), which hosted [[Mark Levin]]'s show among others. The combined entity was initially called Blaze Media, operating both the Blaze TV streaming platform and TheBlaze website. The merger was financially driven — both operations needed scale to compete with the [[The Daily Wire]] and other conservative streaming alternatives. ## Key Hosts and Programming - **Glenn Beck** — Flagship host, radio + TV, American history/founding fathers emphasis - **Mark Levin** (departed for Fox) — Constitutional conservative firebrand - **Pat Gray and Stu Burguiere** — Beck's longtime radio collaborators - **Steven Crowder** — "Change My Mind" campus debate format, departed acrimoniously in 2023 in a public feud over contract terms that exposed Daily Wire-style contracts across conservative media ## The Crowder-Blaze Feud Steven Crowder's 2023 departure — and his airing of conservative media contract terms — sparked an unusual moment of transparency about the economics of right-wing media. Crowder claimed the contract structures (with exit penalties tied to social media deplatforming) were exploitative. The public dispute revealed tensions between conservative media personalities and the institutional infrastructure that hosts them. ## Position in the Ecosystem Blaze TV occupies the faith-and-constitution lane of conservative media — more establishment-religious-right than Daily Wire's culture-war edge, more mainstream than [[InfoWars]]'s conspiracy fringe. Its primary audience skews older and more traditionally religious than Turning Point USA's campus-to-youth pipeline.