Weeks before it was official, there were murmurings that if Bill O’Reilly‘s Fox News career exploded into flames that Tucker Carlson could easily fill the void.
As quickly as Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch announced Tuesday that O’Reilly was a goner, news of Carlson taking over his time slot shook the Internet.
Even talk show host Jerry Springer wrote to congratulate him.
Beginning Monday, April 24th, Tucker Carlson Tonight will take over the 8PM timeslot, broadcasting live from FNC’s Washington, DC bureau.
Three sentences into the statement announcing that O’Reilly was out, Fox News PR declared that Carlson was in.
“Beginning Monday, April 24th, Tucker Carlson Tonight will take over the 8PM timeslot, broadcasting live from FNC’s Washington, DC bureau.”
Carlson landed his 7 p.m slot after the election in November.
In January, the network moved him to 9 p.m. after Megyn Kelly left.
Now he’s getting moved again — right into the hot seat.
At least now maybe things will have a friendlier air with Carlson sandwiched between Martha McCallum at 7 p.m. and “The Five” at 9 p.m. O’Reilly never passed the baton to Carlson at the close of his show. Carlson, on the other hand, always concluded his 9 p.m. program by urging viewers to watch Sean Hannity.
It was all O’Reilly and just O’Reilly.