The Replacement Jokes Are Flying After Tucker Carlson And Fox News Parted Ways, ‘Effective Immediately’

In news that some people undoubtedly still can’t believe is true, Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News. The Swanson heir and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire has enjoyed quite a run of making those faces on prime time news, and it seems that even the highest ratings on the network didn’t ensure that he would coast for life. The timing sure is interesting here, given that the conservative news network recently reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for a whopping $787 million, and although the world never saw an apology from Tucker, The Daily Show spliced one up.

Brian Stelter was one of the first to report that the shocking decision is “effective immediately,” so Tucker won’t be giving a formal sign off during his usual Fox News time slot. What happened? Well, no one is offering a definitive answer as of yet, but Hollywood Reporter has some interesting insight, which suggests that this was a last-minute decision. In addition to a planned expansion for the Tucker Carlson universe (ugh), Fox News had also planned to air a key interview on Monday night, and that suddenly isn’t in the cards:

Carlson had just inked a new contract with Fox News two years ago, a deal that included a dramatic expansion of Tucker Carlson original programming for the Fox Nation streaming service. Carlson was slated to interview Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday night. The channel had been promoting the interview earlier in the morning.

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner announced Carlson’s departure on her program Monday, saying she had some “news from within our Fox News family,” before reading the channel’s statement on Carlson’s departure.

Whatever went down, it doesn’t sound too civil, given the abrupt departure. For the time being, Fox News intends to rotate guest hosts into Tucker’s time slot, but Twitter already has some ideas on who could replace him. It’s not all Succession themed, but Kerry has a fair amount of nominations already, if she can beat out a character from Children of the Corn and Joseph Goebbels’ ghost. I hear that she’s free!

(Via Hollywood Reporter)