In March 2013, Carlson got promoted from being a contributor and guest host at Fox News to being a co-host for the weekend edition of the conservative daily morning news and talk show “Fox & Friends”. His fellow co-hosts were non-other than Alisyn Camerota and Clayton Morris. It aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
After a long rough patch, it seemed as though Carlson had finally found a place to call home. His hard work and perseverance looked like it was finally beginning to pay off.
The Network Changes Directions
Brian Stelter wrote in The New York Times that “during Mr. Carlson’s tenure, MSNBC’s evening programming moved gradually to the left. His former time slots, 6 and 9 p.m., were then occupied by two liberals, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow.”
Carlson also mentioned the shift MSNBC had made during his time there, saying that the network had “changed a lot” and “they didn’t have a role for me.” He said it was completely different from what it was when he first joined. However, he did mention in the same article that despite the difference in their political views the people at the network were always nice to him. Well, that’s good to hear!
Fox News Keeping Carlson Busy
In May 2009, Carlson became a contributor for Fox News. He was also a frequent panelist on a number of late-night satire shows, including “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld” and “Special Report” with Bret Baier. He was the substitute host for “Hannity” in Sean Hannity’s absence and produced a Fox News special called “Fighting for Our Children’s Minds” where he ventured into the nation’s classrooms to find out what exactly our children were being taught.
Fox News is a very conservative network, which made it a very comfortable place for Carlson's views. They welcomed his thought-provoking opinions.
Carlson Gets His Big Shot
On November 14, 2016, Carlson premiered on Fox News’s “On the Record ” , following the departure of the show’s former host. Two months later, in January 2017, the network announced that “On the Record ” would be taking the place of “The Kelly File”, which would be replaced with “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in April 2017.
With 3.7 million viewers in late 2017, its first episode was “the network’s most-watched telecast of the year in the time slot” . In the third quarter of 2018, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was third in a list of the 10 most viewed cable news programs, boasting an average audience of 2,775,000 viewers .
Numbers Don't Lie
Fox New’s rating data proved that Carlson was one of their top rating performers. Just a month after his show debuted, the network's ratings rose by 25%. Fox News executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, has said that "Viewers have overwhelmingly responded to the show and we look forward to him being a part of Fox News’ powerful primetime line-up.”
Viewers now started to look for Carlson whenever they turned on Fox News, he was on a few shows now, so it would be hard to miss him. The future was finally starting to look bright again for Carlson.