Fox News Channel is resorting to these drastic measures after firing Tucker Carlson

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Just a couple of months ago, the marriage of Fox News Channel and Tucker Carlson dominated the cable news landscape. 

But Fox News filed for a divorce and has been suffering from severe separation anxiety. 

And now Fox News Channel is resorting to these drastic measures after firing Tucker Carlson. 

Fox News Channel shoots itself in the foot

Fox News Channel recently made the controversial decision to fire Tucker Carlson. 

Carlson’s ratings were number one in prime-time cable news. 

With Carlson anchoring Fox News’ three-hour primetime lineup, the channel consistently and routinely defeated the combined viewership totals of MSNBC and CNN. 

But Neilson data shows the 8pm eastern time slot on Fox has lost 50% of its audience with Carlson gone. 

Neilson is also reporting that Sean Hannity’s 9pm program has lost a quarter of its lead-in viewers since Fox and Carlson parted ways. 

Hannity to replace Carlson

The higher ups at Fox are desperately seeking answers to stop the bleeding. 

Now, the Drudge Report is hyping an exclusive scoop on Fox News Channel’s new primetime lineup with a change to all three hours. 

According to the Drudge Report, Fox News Channel’s longtime second-fiddle, Sean Hannity, will be moving into the coveted 8pm spot. 

Hannity is an interesting selection given his inability to hold his own audience after Carlson was handed his pink-slip. 

Of course, Hannity is a safe choice, as Fox executives know he will tow the company line and not cause trouble for the network. 

Gutfeld is moving to primetime

The rest of Fox New Channel’s primetime lineup is also getting a facelift. 

Jesse Watters is getting the 9pm eastern time slot. 

And in another curious move, Fox is going to rely on Greg Gutfeld to save the channel’s future. 

Gutfeld will end the primetime lineup with his own show at 10pm. 

The conservative comedian has been dominating the ratings with his late night show Gutfeld!

Gutfeld has become the king of late-night comedy, defeating big name hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and James Corden.

It will be interesting to see if Gutfeld’s fans move with him from late-night to primetime. 

If not, without Tucker Carlson Tonight and Gutfeld!, Fox News will be left with only one hit show remaining – The Five. 

Laura Ingraham angled out of Fox News?

The other interesting take away from the Drudge Report’s exclusive was the absence of one of Fox News Channel’s top personalities. 

Nowhere to be found in the new line up is Laura Ingraham or her current 10pm eastern program, The Ingraham Angle. 

Fox News executives are betting that viewers will forget about Tucker Carlson and return to the network for the new primetime lineup.

But only tell will tell if they are correct. 

Tucker Carlson’s future looks brighter than ever

Of course, Carlson is not very concerned about his future.

His tweet announcing he was bringing his show to Twitter went viral and garnered more than 131.5 million views, nearly 200,000 retweets, more than 26,000 quotes, about 910,000 likes, and nearly 25,000 bookmarks.

This is almost 100-fold more eyeballs than Fox News Channel’s 8pm eastern time slot has enjoyed since Carlson was unceremoniously released from the network. 

All eyes remain on Carlson while his fans eagerly anticipate his Twitter show. 

In the meantime, Carlson’s legal team continues to battle with Fox News lawyers over a non-compete provision in his contract.

If you were in charge of Fox news Channel, who would you rather have anchoring your primetime lineup?
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