Today Fox News announced a replacement for Tucker Carlson, who the network abruptly fired earlier this year, reportedly as part of a legal settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
The network announced Carlson’s successor for the 8 p.m. ET prime time slot will be Jesse Watters, who previously served as a co-host on “The Five” and hosted his own “Jesse Watters Primetime” for just over a year before the promotion.
As part of the change, Watters will replace Carlson, Laura Ingraham will move from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m., Sean Hannity will remain at 9 p.m. and Greg Gutfeld will move his successful late night show an hour earlier to 10 p.m., according to Mediaite.
Exciting! Big Congrats to Jesse, Greg and Sean (our 9p mainstay)…this will be an fascinating 2024 cycle. @FoxNews
BREAKING: Fox News Announces New Prime Time Lineup in Wake of Tucker Carlson Ouster https://t.co/PB8U2pbNjF
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 26, 2023
Watters has worked at Fox News since at least 2003, when he joined the production staff of Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” as a man-on-the-street journalist. He began hosting his own program, “Watters’ World”, in 2017.
The network had previously rotated a number of hosts through the 8 p.m. time slot with little indication of which host would ultimately get the job. Many of the early hosts were exposed to the ire of former Fox News viewers upset Carlson was unceremoniously removed from the channel.
Fox News has suffered an unprecedented ratings decline since the abrupt removal of Carlson, with the network losing its decades-long winning streak to MSNBC earlier this month.
Other than sending cease and desist letters to Carlson – ordering him to cease his Twitter activities immediately – the network has remained virtually silent regarding the reason for Carlson’s departure.
I like Jesse but those who left Fox have found other areas to get their news. They should never have fired Tucker.
Fox News Names Jesse Watters to Replace Tucker Carlson as Anchor of 8 p.m. Hour – WSJ https://t.co/UBmExuWbRO
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) June 26, 2023
Carlson, meanwhile, has launched “Tucker Carlson on Twitter”, a new online show that features Carlson deliver his trademark monologues to an audience on Twitter.
While the network is in decline, Carlson has reached massive success with his online show. Episodes have reached as many as 100 million views, eclipsing not only his former Fox News audience of around 3 million but also all of cable news.
In fact, more people watched Carlson’s announcement that he would be taking his show online than watched Joe Biden’s most recent State of the Union address. At press time, that video has amassed more than 136 million views on Twitter.
