The month of May was the first full month without cable news’ top primetime host, Tucker Carlson, and it showed.
16.05.2023 - 11:45 / variety.com
Tatiana Siegel The mystery surrounding Tucker Carlson’s ouster from the airwaves at Fox News — and his future plans in media — are coming into sharper focus. On April 26, Carlson spoke by phone with one of Fox Corp.’s eight board members, who told the host that his recent benching was a condition of Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the conversation. The unnamed board member told Carlson that the condition does not appear in any of the settlement’s documents, and instead was a verbal agreement. If Fox didn’t comply, the settlement was off, Carlson was told. Dominion had plenty of leverage given that the $787.5 million deal to settle Dominion’s defamation suit against the network wouldn’t officially close until late-May.
If Dominion opted to blow up the deal, Fox would return to square one on settlement talks or potentially subject the Murdoch family empire to a jury trial that would undoubtedly expose more embarrassing details about the operation of Fox News and fallout from its 2020 president election coverage. Unlike Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, Carlson wasn’t a key player in the suit that claimed Fox News repeatedly and knowingly aired false claims about the company with regards to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. But Dominion was looking for the best way to maim the conservative news network, and forcing Fox News to cut ties with the most-watched personality in cable news would deal a potentially insurmountable blow and lead to a viewer exodus, according to Carlson’s understanding. “That condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage,” says a source familiar with the matter. “Dominion wanted to punish
The month of May was the first full month without cable news’ top primetime host, Tucker Carlson, and it showed.
A federal prosecutor reportedly is investigating the alleged hack of internal Fox News video footage of Tucker Carlson, as clips have surfaced on Vice and watchdog group Media Matters for America.
TheWrap reported Wednesday, DeSantis’ anticipated campaign launch with an assist from Musk went from stuttering along to going completely offline before the politician even had a chance to speak. At its height, the Space held 650,000 listeners who were left in the dark while moderator David Sacks could be heard saying, “It just keeps crashing, huh?” in the background.
banner headline on Wednesday claiming the exclusive, saying that “Hannity” would move to 8 p.m., and that Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Waters would be moving to join him in primetime. There was no attribution or additional information, however, and the headline linked to a Mediate write-up of the Drudge headline.Fox strongly denied that any programming decisions had been made in the wake of Carlson’s ouster: “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday.Drudge wrote that a “top source” told the site founder otherwise:“FOXNEWS preparing to announce ambitious new schedule, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, a schedule where every hour of primetime will change!,” Drudge wrote Wednesday.
Fox News said that it is considering changes to its primetime lineup following the exit of Tucker Carlson, but it suggested that a report that Sean Hannity would fill the slot was premature.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Channel is considering “multiple scenarios” for its primetime lineup after the ouster of Tucker Carlson, with the network declining to comment on a recent report that veteran Sean Hannity might move into its 8 p.m. lead-off hour. “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday. Fox News issued the comment in the wake of The Drudge Report posting the notion that Hannity would move to 8, while Jesse Watters, who has fared well at 7 p.m., would move into the primetime schedule, along with Greg Gutfeld, who hosts a late-night-styled 11 p.m. program. Such a move would have significant ramifications that would not dovetail with recent Fox News strategy. Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. program has been a break-out success with the network’s viewers, and part of a move that has extended the outlet’s opinion block from 7 p.m. to midnight. Watters’ show at 7 has also been considered successful, and he might seem like a natural successor to Carlson. Watters is also more right-leaning than others on the roster and he got his start making appearances at 8 p.m. on Bill O’Reilly’s show. But people familiar with Fox News say executives have suggested that Watters was doing well in the 7 p.m. hour he began anchoring in 2022 and may not be Carlson’s successor.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor On his Fox News program, Tucker Carlson would often declare himself “the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and group think.” So now he wants to launch a show on Twitter? The social-media platform has given millions of people the ability to express themselves and communicate in ways they never could before, but it has also become a haven for bullying, tribalism and disinformation. Carlson may become part of the venue’s latest effort to keep traffic flowing even as many advertisers keep more than an arm’s length away. Figuring out how to handle Carlson could be one of the first challenges for Linda Yaccarino, who has been named Twitter’s new CEO. The former NBCUniversal ad-sales chief knows what it takes to line up blue-chip sponsorships at scale. But doing that on behalf of Carlson may be a mission impossible. HisFox News show suffered from a dearth of mainstream national advertisers, despite the show’s high ratings. After recent revelations about the host’s use of racist and misogynist language, disclosed in documents tied to Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation litigation against Fox News, Twitter’s new bosswould have to hunt far and wide for any traditional sponsors willing to associate Carlson with their brands.
Fox News Media waved its banner during the Fox upfront Monday afternoon in New York, plugging a wide array of platforms but notably gliding past its main profit center in prime time.
Elon Musk is clearing things up after Tucker Carlson announced he was producing a version of his Fox News show for Twitter.
Tucker Carlson is bringing a new version of his defunct TV show to Twitter, after being unexpectedly fired from Fox News last month.Carlson, 53, took to Twitter on Tuesday to share the news in a lengthy video, in which he claims that mainstream media outlets are all «thinly disguised propaganda outlets.»«Starting soon, we'll be bringing a new version of the show we've been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter. We'll be bringing some other things too, which we'll tell you about,» Carlson announced in the clip.
Tucker Carlson said that he is planning to relaunch his show on Twitter.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tucker Carlson announced that he will bring a version of his Fox News show — which he lost after getting fired last month — on Twitter, the social platform owned by Elon Musk. “Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” Carlson said in a video shared Tuesday on the platform. “Free speech is the main right you have. Without it, you have no others.” It’s not immediately clear if Carlson has a deal with Musk to launch the show on Twitter or if he’s doing it independently. Carlson will forgo at least $25 million to break his noncompete clause with Fox News, according to Puck News’ Dylan Byers. Prior to Carlson’s announcement of the forthcoming Twitter show, a lawyer for the former Fox News host sent a letter to the cable network accusing Fox News of “fraud and breach of contract,” Axios reported. That is presumably intended to set the stage for Carlson to claim he’s not bound by a noncompete provision of his contract with Fox News.
Confider reported that text messages between Carlson and the network’s then-chief political anchor Bret Baier revealed that they were worried that Fox would be “destroyed” by its early but accurate call of Arizona for Biden.“I’ve got four more years here. I’m stuck with Fox. Got to do whatever I can to keep our numbers up and our viewers happy,” Carlson tweeted.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson is out at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel, and the network hopes that a host of blue-chip advertisers that for years avoided his controversial hour will soon come back in. Since Carlson’s stunning exit last month, a timeslot that has been shunned by many Madison Avenue stalwarts seems as if it is being embraced. Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s largest and most influential advertisers, has been running ads in “Fox News Tonight,” the network’s new 8 p.m. program, for female-skewing products like Venus razor blades by Gillette and Secret underarm deodorant. Also showing up in commercial breaks: Novo Nordisk’s trendy medication Ozempic, and Scotts Miracle-Gro.
now-infamous Tucker Carlson text message suggesting that a mob attack is “not how white men fight,” calling for the Denver company to investigate the leak and warning that they’re in danger of breaching their $787.5 million settlement agreement they forged just last month.Those warnings came in a letter from Fox lawyers to counsel for Dominion, dated Friday and demanding an answer by Monday regarding stories published this week in the New York Times and Daily Beast. Dominion, which has already cashed the check from its settlement victory, declined to comment Friday.“Fox has become aware that documents Fox produced to your clients in discovery in this litigation have been shared with members of the media,” the letter opens.
McEnany tweeted, “I am honored to share that I will be hosting Fox News Tonight on @FoxNews at 8pm ET all next week (5/8-5/12)! Set your DVR. Please join me next week as we dig into the state of politics, media, culture, and faith in America!”McEnany is the third Fox News personality to fill in as a temporary replacement for Carlson, who was fired on April 24. First it was Brian Kilmeade, who stepped in the day Carlson got the axe.
The on-air auditions to be Tucker Carlson’s replacement now are drawing from Donald Trump’s White House.
We now continue to learn even more about Tucker Carlson‘s disturbing behind-the-scenes behavior at Fox News prior to his abrupt firing late last month.
William Earl Tucker Carlson, the recently-axed Fox News host, sent a text to a producer which was the beginning of the end of his relationship with the network, according to a New York Times report. The cruel and racist text was redacted from court filings submitted as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which resulted in the conservative network settling for $787.5 million dollars. The text, which was sent on Jan. 7, 2021, hours after Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol, described a scene Carlson found distressing, in which he said “Trump guys” beat up an “Antifa kid.” But the part that upset him was that “it was three against one,” and “it’s not how white men fight.”
A text message that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson sent allegedly lead to a chain of events that caused him to be let go from the network.