Fox News Suddenly Parts With Tucker Carlson, Whose Last Show Was Friday

Fox News announced it would part ways with opinion anchor and commentator Tucker Carlson, host of their highly rated “Tucker Carlson Tonight”.  Coming as a Surprise on Monday morning, it is still unknown why Fox News and Carlson parted ways. Only time will tell.

In their media statement, Fox said-

 “FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” …“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”…“Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21,” adding “Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”

-FOX News Media

Averaging an audience of 4.56 million viewers, in April of 2020, the Tucker Carlson Tonight program surpassed Hannity as the highest-rated primetime cable show. Further, in the second quarter of 2020, the show averaged audiences of 4.33 million viewers, the largest number of viewers for any program in the history of cable news. According to Mediaite, in 2022-

“Carlson [was] the number-one watched host among Democrats in the key 25-54 age demographic across all networks”

- Mediaite

As such, after the company announced Carlson’s departure, shares of Fox Corporation fell sharply by as much as 5.1 percent. Reportedly, shares of Fox, had climbed 0.3 percent Monday morning, prior to the announcement. They have since recovered some of that lost financial ground.

The company said responding to their evening show slot that-

 “Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named,”

-Fox Corporation

Besides the resulting political world shake up, most of the response was positive.  Some conservatives were left speculating on Carlson’s future, whether that be a run for political office or a launch of his own network. The media response was swift-

• The first to publicly comment on Carlson’s departure, Fox News alumni Megyn Kelly said-
  
  “Good for Tucker.Trust me, he doesn’t need them,”
  -Fox News alumni Megyn Kelly
  
• Chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Christian Ziegler, suggested that Carlson launch his own network-
  
  “immediately,” …calling him the.. “single most important and effective voice in news.” adding…“Let the pro-Freedom Champions rally and join him on the network.”
  -Christian Ziegler, Chair, Republican Party of Florida
  
• Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake remarked-
  
  “The best decision I ever made was leaving Fox,”… “Good for you, @TuckerCarlson. You’re free & uncensored!”
  -Kari Lake
  
• Donald Trump Jr. wrote –
  
  “Confirmed: Tucker Carlson out at Fox News. OMG,”
  -Donald Trump Fr.
  
• Eric Trump openly pondered what is going on internally at Fox News, given the string of recent departures. He asked-
  
  “First it was @LaraLeaTrump, then @dbongino now @TuckerCarlson… What is happening to Fox?”
  -Eric Trump
  

For whatever reason, Carlson is, as Lake said, “free and uncensored”. For all the speculation that flies – this change for Carlson may be just the stepping stone to the next level that he is ready for. Whatever his new plans are, as they say at Fox – “America Is Watching”.

“Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future”

-John F. Kennedy