There has been a lot of recent speculation about the future of Fox News since it decided to part ways with Tucker Carlson, its star anchor. The outlook does not look good: the network lost half of its audience after firing the anchor and continues to test out possible replacements, the latest attempt being Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's former press secretary.
But what about Carlson's future? The journalist hasn’t said much since his last appearance on Fox. He uploaded a video to Twitter days after his departure from the network. His video had more views than the show he used to host. In that tweet, Carlson's words and tone did not even remotely sound like a farewell. "See you soon," he said at the end of his post.
How soon he will fulfill this promise seems to depend on his former employer. According to sources close to Tucker reported in the New York Times, his return to the screen depends on his current contract. Tucker would like to start working for another network before his current contract with Fox is up, but that would go against his current agreement. If he fails to do so, he would have to wait until January 2025 and miss next year's elections.
Fox, according to the New York Times, is even be willing to pay him the agreed-upon $20 million a year, without Carlson having to appear on the air. "The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous," the anchor's attorney, Bryan Freedman, told Axios.
Carlson News?
Although media outlets such as Newsmax and Rumble have reportedly approached the conservative journalist to offer him a role on their channels, Carlson has not ruled out founding his own network, according to Axios.
This media outlet would require the audience to have a paid subscription to watch Carlson on air. This could be motivated by the success of his recent video that he uploaded to his social media as well as the coincidental drop in viewership at his previous network.
Another Musk venture?
The founder of Tesla and SpaceX could embark on another initiative. Musk and Carlson reportedly talked recently about possibly working together, Axios reports, although the article did not go into details.
Musk mentioned the idea in a recent interview. Twitter's CEO clarified that his company did not modify or boost Carlson's tweet to get so many views. It's just that "it has the attention of a lot of people." Although he did not get into the details, Musk showed that he was aware of the anchor’s situation.
Bill Maher asks about @TuckerCarlson's tweet that got 22 million views and 76 million impressions:@elonmusk: "Twitter has a tremendous audience. There are 250 million people that spend an average of half an hour a day on Twitter. So, it's about 120 to 130 million user hours per… pic.twitter.com/GtkRQEw65K
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) April 29, 2023
