(New York) American television popular with conservative viewers, Fox News, announced on Monday the replacement of its radical star presenter Tucker Carlson, who left in April, by another journalist just as marked on the right, Jesse Watters.
The move to one of the most-watched shows in the United States, at 8 p.m., comes amid a tense backdrop for Fox News, the pearl of Australian-American mogul Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
The channel has lost its conservative and provocative star Tucker Carlson, its ratings are dropping and it has agreed to pay electronic voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems $ 787.5 million to avoid a November 2020 presidential libel suit. Fox News had relayed on the air the accusations of the clan of Donald Trump on an election allegedly “stolen” by Joe Biden.
In a statement, the TV said its presenter Laura Ingraham will kick off the parties at 7 p.m., followed by Jesse Watters Primetime at 8 p.m. – from July 17 on Mr. Carlson’s former box – and that the very radical Sean Hannity will keep his show at 9 p.m., followed an hour later by a program by Greg Gutfeld.
“Fox News Channel has been the place where news and analysis take place in America for more than 21 years,” said Fox News Media boss Suzanne Scott.
“The unique perspectives that Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld bring will ensure our viewers unparalleled coverage by our top team for years to come,” she promised.
Jesse Watters, 44, who rose through the ranks at Fox News in 20 years starting as a production assistant, has a reputation for being an aggressive reporter who sets ‘traps and ambushes’ for people he wants to interview during trials, political meetings, demonstrations.
At the end of 2021, he called on participants in a conservative conference to “trap” Anthony Fauci, the White House pandemic gentleman regularly targeted by the right.
He was also taunted for having made mocking and critical comments on the air against immigrants and homeless people.
Tucker Carlson left Fox News abruptly at the end of April and converted to Twitter in June, a social network acquired by Elon Musk.
Since then, audiences for Fox News have declined as Tucker Carlson’s show averaged 3.3 million viewers in 2022, the highest evening audience of any US news channel.