Tucker Carlson, the former host of the popular news program on Fox News, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he would launch a new show on the platform.
Carlson praised Twitter as one of the few platforms that allow free speech and cited it as the last central platform that permits free speech.
“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show to Twitter,” Carlson said.
It’s “the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years” but will come to Twitter, he added.
Carlson did not provide further details about when the show would start or its length. Carlson declined to comment on his departure from Fox News two weeks earlier.
A ‘preposterous’ attempt at silencing Tucker
There have been rumors that Carlson is still under contract until 202 and may be considering taking legal action against Fox News.
However, Carlson’s lawyer dismissed those rumors saying the “idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.”
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Carlson’s video has since generated millions of views and impressions. Carlson’s previous video on his account, released just days after he left Fox, generated nearly 100 million impressions.
Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter in late 2022, responded to Carlson’s announcement with a tweet, saying that “Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards as all content creators” and that he hoped many others, particularly from the left, would also become content creators on the platform.
The ‘obviously successful strategy’ of the network
Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who spoke to investors on a conference call on Tuesday, said that the network has no plans to change its programming strategy, responding to a question about Carlson.
Fox News has “obviously a successful strategy,” he said, and Carlson’s exit was merely a tweaking of the network’s strategy and wouldn’t represent a significant change of plans.
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From Fox to Flop: viewership for new show plummets
Since leaving Fox News, Carlson’s primetime ratings have dropped significantly, and the new show, “Fox News Tonight,” has seen a sharp decline in ratings.
Viewership figures for the night of May 5 showed that “Fox News Tonight” attracted only 90,000 people in the 25–54 demographic coveted by advertisers, while MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” attracted 145,000.
In comparison, Carlson’s final show on April 21 obtained more than 270,000 viewers in the 25–54 demographic and drew about 2.6 million overall viewers.
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Twitter, a platform for unrestricted speech
Carlson’s new show on Twitter comes at a time when there is increasing scrutiny of social media platforms over their handling of misinformation and hate speech.
Twitter has been criticized for its handling of specific users and content, including former President Trump, who was suspended from the platform in January 2021 for violating its policies on inciting violence.
However, Carlson praised Twitter as a platform that permits free speech and said it was “amazingly” one of the few that still allow unrestricted free speech.
The Carlson vs Fox viewership battle looms
It remains to be seen how successful Carlson’s new show will be on Twitter and how it will affect his former employer, Fox News.
A potential public battle between Carlson and Fox News would shake up the broadcasting world, coming just two years after the network’s viewership temporarily dropped after it called the 2020 presidential election contest in Arizona for Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.
The former president has repeatedly criticized Fox and claimed it’s veering to the left.
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