Rising Fox News star Lawrence Jones has been tapped as the next changing replacement for Tucker Carlson’s weekday spot at 8 p.m.
Jones, 30, will be the next temporary host of the rebranded “Fox News Tonight” starting Monday, following Brian Kilmeade’s week-long stint as Carlson’s replacement, a network spokesman told DailyMail.com on Saturday.
Since January 2022, Jones has hosted a primetime weekend show on the network, ‘Lawrence Jones Cross Country’, making him the youngest black solo cable news show host in history.
The self-proclaimed libertarian also spends much of the week as a roving reporter for Fox & Friends, traveling the country covering major news events.
Meanwhile, conservative news outlet Newsmax is making a big move to woo Carlson, even raising the possibility that he could run programming for the entire channel, not just his own show, sources said. TMZ.
Rising Fox News star Lawrence Jones (left) has been tapped as the next rotating replacement for fired host Tucker Carlson’s (right) 8 p.m. weekday spot
Carlson has been cryptic about his plans this week in comments to DailyMail.com and a video statement on Twitter, and is currently barred from formal job negotiations due to his Fox News contract.
While Newsmax has not made a formal job offer, channel executives have teased Carlson’s confidants with informal proposals that he could take a lead role in the channel’s rebranding and programming oversight, according to TMZ.
The Newsmax website also spent much of the week running stories about Fox News and cajoling Carlson, running a Saturday morning banner headline citing a poll that read, “Tucker Carlson more popular than Fox News.” .
Carlson, 53, reportedly earned up to $20 million a year at Fox News as the channel’s highest-rated primetime host.
In the wake of Carlson’s April 24 firing, ratings skyrocketed for Newsmax’s Eric Bolling, hosting a show in the same 8 p.m. Eastern slot as Carlson’s previous show.
Bolling, for example, had 510,000 viewers Wednesday night, compared to 168,000 the previous Wednesday, Nielsen said. On Tuesday, Bolling had 562,000 viewers, up from 122,000 on the same day a week earlier.
Still, those numbers represent a fraction of the viewership that Fox News typically draws in primetime. Even after a slump with Carlson’s departure, the network’s 8pm Wednesday slot attracted 1.33 million viewers, with Kilmeade hosting.
Since January 2022, Jones has hosted a primetime weekend show on the network, ‘Lawrence Jones Cross Country’, making him the youngest black solo host of a cable news show.
Fox News cut ties with Tucker Carlson after controversies including the costly Dominion lawsuit and his recent coverage of the January 6 riots
The challenge for Newsmax will be to keep it up. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Newsmax also saw an increase in ratings as it refused to recognize Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
But after Biden’s inauguration, Newsmax’s viewership dropped and Fox News rose again.
Meanwhile, One America Network, another right-wing news channel, has also sought rapprochement with Carlson.
Founder and CEO Robert Herring “would like to invite Carlson to negotiations to become part of the OAN team,” according to a post about Carlson’s departure on the OAN website.
As the biggest name in cable news, Carlson is unlikely to go anywhere he can’t pay a huge salary — or provide the massive reach he’s accustomed to.
In a different vein, fledgling cable news network NewsNation, which touts itself as the politically moderate channel, is eager to recruit both Carlson and fired CNN anchor Don Lemon, according to TMZ.
Both would likely be paid salaries well below what they’ve recently earned (Lemon apparently made $7 million a year at CNN) if they joined the network.
NewsNation has a form for hiring anchors that have left major networks under a cloud.
The network signed Chris Cuomo in October 2022 after he was fired by CNN, and Cuomo’s show regularly features guest appearances from former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
NewsNation declined to comment on the Carlson rumor when approached by DailyMail.com earlier this week.
Fox News, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch (pictured), recently reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which filed a defamation lawsuit alleging hosts like Carlson pushed Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud
Fox News has seen its primetime ratings plummet since Carlson’s departure, though on Thursday night its old 8 p.m. slot drew 1.46 million viewers, beating both CNN and MSNBC.
Carlson had 2.65 million viewers on April 21, because what he didn’t know at the time would be his last show on Fox.
He was fired on Monday with no public explanation, though there is no shortage of theories about the split.
On Wednesday, shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, the time his Fox show began, Carlson posted a video to Twitter in which he spoke of a lack of fair political debate in the media.
Carlson said one of the things that struck him “when you get away from the noise for a few days” is how nice some people are and how hilarious some are.
“The other thing you notice when you take some time off is how incredibly stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he said.
They’re totally irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years we won’t even remember hearing them. Believe me, as someone who participated.’