After Tucker Carlson: Expect a new face, not a new formula, at Fox
The abrupt firing of Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson, less than a week after Fox鈥檚 parent company agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit, has set off shockwaves in media and political circles. Since 2017, Mr. Carlson鈥檚 8 p.m. weekday show had made him a conservative media star and a kingmaker within the Republican Party, particularly its pro-Trump wing where his bomb-throwing culture-war agenda resonated.听
His departure, which Fox聽, represents a potential hinge point for the network, which has the highest ratings in cable news television, but faces growing competition from right-wing digital media, especially for younger viewers, and is currently in聽. On Monday night, Brian Kilmeade, a co-host of Fox & Friends, hosted its 8 p.m. show. Fox is expected to rotate hosts in that slot until it picks a permanent replacement for Mr. Carlson.听
Still, anyone who expects a聽substantive聽shift at Fox, such as聽a retreat from the hard-right ideas that Mr. Carlson espoused, may be disappointed, say analysts. A more likely outcome is a new face on Fox with similar opinions who can serve the same audience. 鈥淭he show goes on,鈥� says A.J. Bauer, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Alabama who researches conservative media. 鈥淭he time slots matter more than the people in them.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Why would you fire your top-rated host? Fox News has a history of doing just that 鈥� with its brand being more important than any individual personality.
Last week, Fox settled a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems聽over false claims of voting-machine fraud aired聽after the 2020 election by Mr. Carlson and other opinion hosts. But the company faces other legal perils: Another voting-machine company, Smartmatic, has also sued the network, raising the possibility of further payouts by Fox Corp., which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family.听
New legal risks?
Mr. Carlson鈥檚 ouster, however, may turn more on another lawsuit. Last month, Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Mr. Carlson, filed a complaint against Mr. Carlson and Fox, alleging a pattern of misogynistic behavior toward colleagues and guests. Fox responded by firing Ms. Grossberg, whom it accused of disclosing privileged information.听
Her lawsuit has echoes of past upheaval at Fox News. In 2016-17, multiple lawsuits and instances of alleged sexual harassment led to the ousting of its founder Roger Ailes and a prime-time host, Bill O鈥橰eilly, whom Mr. Carlson eventually replaced on air. Fox paid millions of dollars to settle multiple claims by women against Mr. Ailes, who died in 2017, and Mr. O鈥橰eilly.听
Now Mr. Carlson faces complaints about how he treats his staff, after the Dominion lawsuit had already revealed a trove of his often derogatory texts and emails about Fox reporters and executives. Some of the comments he made were redacted in court filings, but may relate to Ms. Grossberg鈥檚 lawsuit, which also alleged antisemitic comments by Mr. Carlson and his team.听
That makes Mr. Carlson 鈥渁 bit of a lawsuit risk鈥� to Fox and its owners, says Nicole Hemmer, a political historian at Vanderbilt University and author of 鈥淢essengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.鈥澛�
after consulting with board members and Fox executives. Why exactly Fox chose to terminate Mr. Carlson鈥檚 contract is still unknown, but the decision seems to be less about the content of Mr. Carlson鈥檚 show or his viewership than the liability he represented to Fox Corp., says Professor Hemmer. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a cost to keeping Carlson on air.鈥澛�
Mr. Carlson wasn't the only media host to lose his job this week. CNN chose Monday to fire Don Lemon, a morning news anchor who had drawn flak most recently for sexist comments about Nikki Haley, a Republican seeking the presidential nomination in 2024. Mr. Lemon had apologized for what he said on air.
The rise of MAGA cheerleader
Mr. Carlson鈥檚 rise to the pinnacle of Fox fame and compensation 鈥撀爃e was 鈥� overlapped with the Trump presidency and its aftermath. He took Mr. O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 slot and grew the audience until he became the most watched cable news host ever in 2020, says Professor Hemmer. That success was rooted in Fox鈥檚 embrace of Donald Trump and his followers after having not leaned into his run for the GOP nomination. 鈥淭ucker Carlson was a huge part of that. He becomes the voice of the MAGA base,鈥� she says.听
But while hosts like Sean Hannity, who was in daily contact with President Trump, became a mouthpiece for the administration after 2017, Mr. Carlson drew deeply on fringe ideas on the right, including racist theories about the deliberate replacement of white Americans by people of color who migrate to the U.S., says Professor Bauer. He wasn鈥檛 the only Fox host to play on fears of migrants, but he was the most effective popularizer of far-right ideas. 鈥淗e dipped into somewhat obscure sexist and racist theories and found a way to make it palatable to folks who don鈥檛 consider themselves to be white supremacists,鈥� he says.听
Mr. Carlson also drew criticism, including from Republicans in Congress, for trying to whitewash the violent assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He called them 鈥渕ostly peaceful鈥� patriots and edited hundreds of hours of footage from the attack to this end.
What next?
Mr. Carlson hasn鈥檛 commented on his departure from Fox or what he will do next. While his contract with Fox is likely to prevent him taking a similar job with a major news network, he could try to build his own media empire, says Ms. Hemmer. He could tell his fans that 鈥淔ox is corporate media and they got rid of me because they don鈥檛 care about you,鈥� she says.听
Still, that hasn鈥檛 worked out so well for his predecessors shown the door by Fox. Neither Mr. O鈥橰eilly nor Glenn Beck, another Fox host who left in 2011, has managed to find as large an audience on his own. Megyn Kelly, who quit Fox in 2017 after clashing with Mr. Trump, later signed a lucrative contract with NBC, but after two years .听
Within a fractured media landscape, Fox remains the biggest draw for conservatives, particularly for Republican candidates seeking a national audience. That seems unlikely to change, whoever is the face of prime-time opinion. 鈥淔ox is a massive platform with very few peers,鈥� says Professor Bauer.听
