The US television Fox News, popular with conservative viewers, announced on Monday that its radical star presenter Tucker Carlson, who left in April, will be replaced by an equally radical right-wing journalist: Jesse Watters.
• Also read: Fox News calls Biden a ‘budding dictator’
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The switch to one of the most-watched 8pm shows in the United States comes against a tense backdrop for Fox News, the pearl of Australian-American mogul Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
The broadcaster has lost its conservative and provocative star Tucker Carlson, its ratings are plummeting, and it has agreed to pay electronic voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to end a presidential defamation lawsuit in November 2020 to avoid. Fox News had televised the allegations by Donald Trump’s clan over an election allegedly “stolen” by Joe Biden.
In a statement, the television said its presenter Laura Ingraham will open the evenings at 7pm, followed by “Jesse Watters Primetime” at 8pm. Sean Hannity will resume his show at 9pm, followed by a show by Greg Gutfeld an hour later.
“Fox News Channel has been where news and analysis has happened in America for more than 21 years,” said Suzanne Scott, President of Fox News Media.
“The unique perspectives brought by Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld will guarantee our viewers unparalleled coverage from our elite team for years to come,” she promised.
Jesse Watters, 44, who rose in 20 years as a production assistant at Fox News, has a reputation for being an aggressive reporter who sets “traps and ambushes” for people he wants to interview at court cases, political rallies and demonstrations.
In late 2021, he urged attendees at a Conservative conference to “trap” Anthony Fauci, the pandemic White House gentleman regularly targeted by the right.
He was also ridiculed for making derisive and critical comments against immigrants and the homeless on the radio.
Tucker Carlson abruptly left Fox News in late April and joined Twitter, a social network acquired by Elon Musk, in June.
Since then, Fox News ratings have declined as Tucker Carlson’s show averaged 3.3 million viewers in 2022, the highest evening rating of any US news network.