Biggest News Anchor Makeup Fails Of 2024

If you're on television, chances are you'll want to wear some heavier makeup than you would in your day-to-day life. So, it's really no wonder that many news anchors look unrecognizable without makeup. For folks whose whole job is to present the news on TV, appearances are certainly important. Consequently, news anchors usually have particularly well-done makeup. Of course, that doesn't mean that every anchor's makeup is perfect all the time, and just like the rest of us, they can have an occasional bad makeup day.

From massive fake eyelashes to bad blending and way, way too much black eyeliner, the ladies of the news world didn't have flawless makeup looks every day in 2024. We're used to seeing news anchors on our TV screens all the time, so when something isn't quite right about their makeup, it's particularly obvious. Out of the makeup crimes committed by newspeople this year, we've got our top five worst makeup fails.

Co-host of Fox News' "The Five" Jeanine Pirro is clearly a fan of a full glam makeup look. When she's on-air, she's usually wearing some dramatic, high-contrast makeup, and most of the time, this actually works for her. When she attended Fox Nation's 2024 Patriot Awards, however, her heavy makeup was way too heavy. Her harsh eyeliner drew attention to her eyes in all the wrong ways and altered their shape. Furthermore, her massive fake eyelashes just looked way too unnatural. 

While heavy, the rest of Pirro's makeup was actually pretty and flattered her face. By pulling off those lashes and toning down her liner or swapping it out for brown over black, her makeup could have been a nice, glamorous look for a night out. As it is, though, it's difficult to look at Pirro's overall look without feeling like something just feels a bit uncanny and overdone. 

Jeanine Pirro may have caked on her makeup way too heavily at the Patriot Awards, but she wasn't the only one. Emmy award-winning anchor Harris Faulkner also piled on the beauty products for the event. Did these Fox News darlings get ready in the same very dimly lit dressing room or something? We have no idea, but they definitely both could have toned it down a bit.

From her two-tone lipstick to her heavy contour, pretty much every part of Faulkner's makeup could have been pared down for a better look. Yet, the biggest offense of her whole makeup look is definitely her eyes. Her brows feel a bit severe and fake-looking, and her eyes are completely overwhelmed by enormous lashes and heavy liner. Her top lashes are almost the same height as her eyes themselves, which is way too big to look natural, and, instead, they make her eyes look smaller. 

The titular host of "Get Tammy Bruce" on Fox Nation had a very different makeup fail in 2024 than the rest of the folks on the list. Bruce typically tends toward much lighter makeup, so she doesn't have the tendency to wear way-too-long false lashes or over-the-top contour. That does not mean, though, that her makeup is always perfect. In October 2024, Bruce took to Instagram to share a selfie she took in the car. The selfie showed off makeup that just didn't make her look her best for a few reasons. The most obvious issue is how her foundation isn't laying well on her skin. It can be difficult to find the perfect foundation for your skin type, and based on this photo, it seems that this is something Bruce hasn't quite done, leaving her skin looking heavy and overly made-up.

The colors she chose also weren't ideal. The pink lipstick and slightly smokey eye just don't work well together and seem to wash her out, rather than adding warmth to her face. Last but definitely not least are her brows. Bruce's brows look too small for her face and could use a bit more filling in to make her makeup look complete.

When it comes to false eyelashes, it can be easy to go a bit over the top — especially when strip lashes are involved. Pairing thick, bold strip lashes with the right eye makeup is key to making them appear natural on your face. And, this is one key that CBS host Gayle King forgot about while biting into a cheeseburger in December 2024 for Oprah Daily. The Instagram video showed King with some big strip lashes that totally overwhelmed her eyes. Because she paired them with a flat, matte eyeshadow that was lighter than her skin tone, it made the unnatural transition from her lashes to her lids even more glaring. 

Ironically, King also went makeup-free in 2024 while visiting "The Drew Barrymore Show" for the "Bare Is Beautiful" episode. King was the perfect guest for an episode of that name, since she did, in fact, look stunning with her face makeup-free. So, ultimately, King proved that while it may not be the same for cheeseburgers, when it comes to makeup, sometimes less is more. 

For former Donald Trump ally Kayleigh McEnany, Election Night 2024 was certainly a special moment. She served as the White House press secretary during Trump's first presidency, and these days, she's a host at Fox News. McEnany often sports some questionable makeup looks; she favors light eyeshadows and occasionally over-the-top lashes. For election night, however, she seemed to take this a bit further. She sported a light eyeshadow and black liner that lined the entirety of the outside of her eyes. As someone with smaller, lighter features, this look felt a bit heavy and overdone for her.

Using eyeliner all the way around your eye can cause your eyes to look smaller than they are. For obvious reasons, this can be even harsher and more intense when the eyeliner in question is black. In McEnany's case, pairing this with a lightly colored, frosty eyeshadow and thick black false lashes only acted to make this problem more severe.