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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 months, 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.
Fox News has made a slew of major announcements in recent months about several hosts on the network.
Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch announced last week that he is transitioning from his roles as Chair of Fox Corporation and Executive Chairman of News Corp.
Bret Baier will remain with the Fox News Channel for many years to come after the long anchor signed a new multi-year contract. Fox News and Baier have extended his contract, which was last renewed in 2021 for a five-year term that would have kept him at the cable network until at least 2025.
The network announced last week that popular host Mark Levin will now have a more prominent weekend slot.
The “Life, Liberty & Levin” program will now air at 8 p.m. Eastern on both Saturday and Sunday, according to Fox News.
The “Life, Liberty & Levin” program will now air at 8 p.m. Eastern on both Saturday and Sunday, according to Fox News. On September 16th, the new Saturday night airing will begin, and further changes to the weekend programming will be made at a later time.
“Since joining the network in 2017, Mark has provided our audience with thought-provoking analysis on America’s core values and their impact on current events,” said Meade Cooper, executive vice president of primetime programming at Fox News, in a statement. “We are looking forward to expanding his popular show to two nights a week.”
“Fox News said ‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ is the highest-rated primetime program in cable news on Sundays, averaging 1.4 million viewers and 104,000 in the 25-54 demographic, the audience most coveted by advertisers,” Variety reported.
“Levin is also a host of ‘The Mark Levin Show,’ one of the nation’s largest syndicated radio programs, which airs on more than 300 stations across the country. Levin served in the Reagan administration, and worked as an associate director of presidential personnel, deputy solicitor of the U.S. Department of Interior, and deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, among other positions,” the outlet added.
