While some conservatives commentators, such as Stu Burguiere and Glenn Beck, have deemed Tucker Carlson's departure from Fox News "suicide" for the network, others believe the absence of the controversial host might actually benefit the company by attracting more lucrative advertising deals.
Talking about Fox News' surprise announcement on Monday—which said that the network and Carlson "have agreed to part ways"—on NewsNation, former Fox News talk show host Megyn Kelly said that the star's departure won't be the end of the network—but could be a strategic move motivated by a need to improve the financial profile of the company.
Kelly, who worked for Fox News from 2004 to 2017 and now hosts her own talk show and podcast The Megyn Kelly Show, told NewsNation's Dan Abrams that Carlson, as the network's "most controversial host," failed to bring the big names in advertising.
"Though Tucker was number one, and an incredible talent [...] he struggled to bring in top ad dollars in that hour," Kelly said during the interview, while acknowledging the contribution Carlson made to the network's relevance and popularity in recent years.
"One problem that Tucker has, since he's been so demonized by the left, is he doesn't have the top advertisers in that particular hour, because he's so controversial," Kelly said. "So Fox actually doesn't make that much money out of Tucker's hour. Now they can use him to jack up their subscription fees [...] but they want ad dollars."
Kelly went on to "guess" that a business calculation would tell Fox News that any other host in Carlson's chair would increase ad dollars for the network despite shaving some of the audience. "They are not loyal to anybody," she said of the network.
Abrams intervened saying that, despite being "a defender of Tucker for a long time" and "to some degree more recently," the host had gone "too far" in his controversial stances in a way that "any news operations just can't stand by." The NewsNation host then mentioned Carlson's erroneous suggestions that the January 6 riots were a false flag operation and statements in defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On the same day, media expert Colby Hall shared a similar interpretation of Carlson's departure from Fox News, telling NewsNation it is possible that after the Dominion defamation lawsuit the host could have "ran out of his nine lives" and might have become "too much of a danger" to the network. According to Hall, it's likely that Fox News is making a shift "to more accountability."
Despite his popularity, Carlson's show was not the most-watched of the network, which is The Five. His outspoken persona has kept lucrative advertising deals from the company.
Several prominent companies have previously refused to advertise on Carlson's show, including Disney, Papa John's, Postmark and T-Mobile. In 2020, these companies took a stance against Carlson's negative comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that their ads and money would be removed from Carlson's show and moved to other programs within Fox News.
Fox News has not yet clarified the reason behind Carlson's departure from the network, nor the circumstances surrounding his leaving, but the announcement came only days after the network settled a defamation lawsuit, brought by Dominion Voting Systems, for $787.5 million.
Newsweek has contacted Fox News for comment by email.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
