A handful of current Fox News talent have contemplated jumping ship and joining former top-rated host Tucker Carlson, according to several media reports. Carlson has been airing his program on Twitter for over a month, despite threats from Fox News.
“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,” it was reported.
Carlson currently remains under contract with Fox News at a reported $20 million a year, so he isn’t free to sign on with another network. Reports said his contract doesn’t expire until after the 2024 election, in January 2025.
Variety reported last month that Dominion’s defamation claims against Fox News rested mostly on accusations aired post-2020 election on programs hosted by Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Maria Bartiromo, the company wanted to hurt Fox and, as such, chose to press the network into cutting ties with its most popular talent: Carlson.
“That condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage,” a source familiar with the matter told Variety. “Dominion wanted to punish Fox, and it’s working.”
Variety also reported that Carlson was taken off the air as a condition of Fox’s recent defamation settlement:
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
Both Fox and Dominion have denied that Carlson’s dismissal was part of the settlement agreement.
Carlson, for his part, has been busy since his departure.
Carlson gave an update on why the network took him off the air in late April during an interview with British comedian and actor Russell Brand during the latter’s podcast.
During one segment of the show, Carlson said he doesn’t know precisely why he was fired but has a good idea about it, adding that he is not angry over the parting of ways.
“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.”
Fox News cable news ratings have rebounded since the network took Carlson off the air in late April.
“Last week, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show drew 2.35 million viewers, beating Fox News competitor Hannity by 100,000 viewers, one of only four MSNBC hours to break into the top 40 most-viewed cable shows last week; The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, Deadline: White House and The Beat with Ari Melber was in spots 37, 38 and 39, respectively,” Forbes reported. “A reshuffled Fox News line-up helped the network’s primetime ratings jump 26% last week, Nielsen data shows, buoyed by an interview with former President Donald Trump and Jesse Watters’ shift into the 8 p.m. spot once held by Tucker Carlson.”
“Fox News averaged 1.8 million primetime viewers for the week of July 17, up from 1.4 million in the previous week and in line with the channel’s year-to-date average of around 1.8 million—by comparison, MSNBC averaged almost 1.2 million in primetime last week (up 2% from a week earlier) and CNN averaged 653,000 (up 3%). Fox News launched a new primetime lineup on July 17 following the ouster of Carlson back in April: Watters moved from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Laura Ingraham shifted from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m., Hannity kept his 9 p.m. slot and Greg Gutfeld moved from late night into the 10 p.m. hour,” the outlet added.
