Second Time's The Charm: Sarah Palin Rejoins Fox News As Contributor

Sarah Palin is heading back to Fox News.

The former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican candidate for vice president has inked a new deal as a contributor on Fox News and Fox Business Network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The power of Fox News is unparalleled. The role of Fox News in the important debates in our world is indispensable," Palin said in a statement. "I am pleased and proud to be rejoining Roger Ailes and the great people at Fox.”

“I’ve had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining Fox News as a contributor," said Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. "I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind.”

The news comes just five months after Palin and Fox parted ways. Palin initially joined the network in January 2010, signing a deal worth a reported $1 million a year to deliver political commentary. However, her tenure at Fox was not without its share of controversy.

As The Associated Press reports, Palin raised the ire of the network when she used conservative radio host Mark Levin’s program, rather than Fox News itself, to announce she would not seek the Republican nomination in 2012.

Last summer, Palin took to Facebook to publicly express her displeasure at not being featured in Fox’s coverage of the 2012 GOP convention.

Joe Muto, former Fox employee and author of the book “An Atheist in the Foxhole,” told The Daily Beast that her tenure at the network went sour “almost immediately. She wasn’t willing to do the work. And they made it easy for her. They built a studio for her in house in Alaska, so all she had to do was slap on some makeup and go sit in front of the camera.” Muto continues, “She would still show up late, unprepared, hadn’t even bothered to study what the topic was and would completely whiff it on the air.”

There certainly appeared to be no love lost between Palin and Fox chairman Roger Ailes, who famously declared in an interview with AP writer Frazier Moore, “I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings.”

Perhaps the second time is the charm for Sarah Palin and Fox.