Tucker Carlson’s new free-agent status came as a shock to most. After all, Tucker Carlson Tonight has been on the air since 2016. Fox has dominated in the top slots, with Tucker’s show sitting comfortably in the top 5 list. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before Fox started to feel the pain of their decision to drop Tucker. Fox suffered a big ratings hit and has reportedly lost $800 million in value since dropping him from the network.
When Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott called Carlson on Monday morning to tell him he would be “parting ways” with the network, the host repeatedly asked why, according to people familiar with the conversation. Scott would only tell him that the decision came “from above” — meaning Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, CEO of Fox Corp.
Scott and Lachlan Murdoch had made the decision to fire Carlson on Friday evening, and Lachlan spoke to his father about it on Saturday, according to two people familiar with the discussion. The decision also came after months of tension and complaints within Fox about Carlson’s lack of respect for Fox’s upper ranks.
Several people with knowledge of Fox’s discussions said the redacted messages were a catalyst for one of the most momentous decisions Fox and its leaders — the father-son team of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch — had made in years: to sever ties with the host of their highest-rated and highly profitable prime-time program and a face of the network in the Trump era.
The company dismissed him on Monday, with a phone call from Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media.
In the end, according to one of the people with knowledge of the internal discussions, Lachlan Murdoch viewed forcing out Mr. Carlson as a “business decision,” just as he did the Dominion settlement.
The Trust Problem
Fox News had already been facing an uphill battle given mass media is regarded as largely untrustworthy. Tucker, on the other hand, has no shortage of offers on the table. In the meantime, Fox will rotate guest hosts to fill in the 8 pm slot as Fox News Tonight until a permanent replacement is found.
Looking back, it was only a matter of time before Tucker left the establishment media.
Tucker Carlson is better off without Fox