Fox News firing Tucker Carlson turned into one of the biggest blunders in media history.
Now the network is scrambling to perform damage control and reverse falling ratings.
And Fox News picked one surprising name to replace Tucker Carlson.
After weeks of rumors Fox News finally made it official.
Jesse Watters will take over Tucker Carlson’s old 8 p.m. news slot.
Laura Ingraham moves from 10 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Greg Gutfeld will take his act to 10 p.m. while Trace Gallagher will host a new 11 p.m. newscast.
“Fox News will also move Greg Gutfeld into the primetime block, giving him the 10 p.m. hour, while the current occupant, the conservative firebrand Laura Ingraham, takes up the reins at 7 p.m. hour. Sean Hannity will keep his perch at 9 p.m., a slot he has held since 2017 and for long periods of time in the past. Trace Gallagher’s late-night news program, ‘Fox News @ Night,’ will follow Gutfeld at 11 p.m., an hour earlier than its previous midnight slot,” Variety reported.
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott cast the decision to reshuffle the deck as the network relying on the power of its brand to win back viewers.
“Fox News Channel has been America’s destination for news and analysis for more than 21 years and we are thrilled to debut a new lineup,” Scott’s statement read. “The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come.”
After Fox News took Carlson off the air under mysterious circumstances the network’s ratings tanked.
Fox lost over 30 percent of its primetime audience as viewers boycotted Fox fearing that firing Carlson – who was a major supporter of Donald Trump’s agenda as well as an opponent of establishment dogmas on transgenderism, the war in Ukraine and COVID vaccines – foretold an editorial shift at Fox News.
Jesse Watters is the host of the only two shows – in addition to his 7 p.m. “Jesse Watters Primetime” program, he also co-hosts “The Five” – which draw in over 2 million viewers.
None of the rotating cast of guest hosts Fox News tried as fill-ins for Carlson drew better than half the 3.2 million viewers Carlson brought in on a nightly basis.
Fox News knows it is in trouble and it did not want to take a risk in bringing in someone from the outside to try and take over Carlson’s shows.
That’s why management stuck with known quantities and just played musical chairs with the lineup.
But Fox News has a deeper problem than its talent roster.
Firing Carlson with no explanation given destroyed viewer trust in the network.
And Fox can’t rebuild its consumer confidence with a simple lineup switch.
Liberal Hack Watch will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story and the rest of the breaking news in politics, please bookmark our site, consider making us your homepage and forward our content with your friends on social media and email.