Fox News has announced a major shake-up of its prime-time lineup, with Jesse Watters taking over Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. slot. Watters, who currently co-hosts the 7 p.m. show “The Five,” will move to the 8 p.m. hour starting on July 17.
Watters will fill an hour that has been helmed by rotating hosts since Fox fired top-rated host Tucker Carlsonin late April.
Sean Hannity will remain at 9 p.m., while news anchor Trace Gallagher will move up an hour, from midnight to 11 p.m.
This move comes a month after Carlson’s departure, and Fox’s overall prime-time ratings declined by 38 percent — from an average of 2.6 million viewers to 1.6 million.
Watters is a longtime Fox News personality who is known for his brash and outspoken style. He is a favorite among the network’s conservative audience, and his show “The Five” is one of its most popular.
“The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come,” Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott said in a statement.
Watters has faced significant criticism, at a conservative political conference in December 2021, Watters encouraged an audience of young conservatives to “ambush” infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci and to finish him off with a rhetorical “kill shot” of pointed questions.
Fauci called for Fox to fire Watters, but the network issued a statement defending him and promoted him a few weeks later.
One beneficiary of Fox’s ratings decline has been the conservative cable news channel Newsmax, which saw a 135 percent increase in viewership in the month after Carlson was ousted.
And Tucker is doing just fine over there at Twitter.
Take a look at this post:
I like Jesse but those who left Fox have found other areas to get their news. They should never have fired Tucker.
Fox News Names Jesse Watters to Replace Tucker Carlson as Anchor of 8 p.m. Hour – WSJ https://t.co/UBmExuWbRO
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) June 26, 2023
