According to several media sources, a few current Fox News hosts have considered leaving the network to work with former highly regarded personality Tucker Carlson, who has been posting a version of his show on Twitter despite Fox’s warnings for months.
“Carlson’s Twitter move could have additional reverberations with talent at the network. A handful of Fox anchors have reached out to Carlson directly or had their surrogates contact him to say they are eager to join whatever venture he starts on Twitter when their contracts are up, according to sources,” Variety reported.
Carlson still has a current contract with Fox that is reportedly worth $20 million a year. He is therefore not free to join another network. According to reports, his contract won’t end until January 2025, which is after the 2024 election.
According to Variety, Dominion Voting System’s defamation charges against Fox News were based mostly on statements made on shows broadcast by Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo after the 2020 presidential election. But because the business wanted to undermine Fox, it decided to pressure the network to sever connections with Carlson, one of its most well-known performers.
Variety reported at the time that “that condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage.”
The insider continued, “Dominion wanted to punish Fox, and it’s working,” alluding to Fox’s precipitous drop in viewership in the weeks after Carlson’s termination from the network.
Variety continued:
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.
Carlson’s termination was not covered by the settlement deal, according to denials from Fox and Dominion.
In an interview with British comedian and actor Russell Brand for the latter’s podcast, Carlson provided an update on the circumstances surrounding the network’s decision to remove him from the air in late April.
In a show segment, Carlson stated he didn’t know the exact reason why he was let go but had a good understanding about it. He said that he wasn’t upset about the breakup.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Carlson said on Brand’s podcast, “Stay Free,” the former host’s first public interview since being axed by Fox, Newsmax reported. “They didn’t agree with me, of course, I don’t think.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been fired … when you say what you think, there’s an expectation you can get fired. I didn’t expect to get fired that morning at all, so I was shocked. But I wasn’t really shocked … I wasn’t mad,” he noted further.
“The only thing that bothers me? I’m 54. When you get a little bit older … you can lose your drive … It’s a little bit too nice,” he said regarding his now-extended vacation in Maine, which has been filled with fishing and eating late breakfasts, he said. “My only fear has been … being a little bit too happy.”
In July, Fox News’ redesigned primetime schedule surpassed rivals.
Following Carlson’s cancellation, “Fox News Tonight” briefly replaced the time slot with a lineup of guest hosts. With an average weekly audience of 2.4 million viewers, “Jesse Watters Primetime” made its premiere in that time slot on July 17.
The time slot for Greg Gutfeld was also advanced by one hour to 10 p.m. ET. Gutfeld! averaged 1.98 million viewers and 252,000 people in the 25-54 age group. With the latter, it came in last place in that category behind Fox News’ “The Five,” which averaged 254,000. The most watched cable news program was “The Five,” which averaged 2.59 million people.
