Benzinga - Media personality Tucker Carlson might not have a current network to call home yet but could see multiple bids for his services, given his strong ratings and huge reach.
What Happened: On Monday, Carlson and Fox announced they had parted ways, shocking many in the media and political worlds.
The announcement came on the heels of Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOX)(NASDAQ: FOXA) announcing a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over unfounded allegations that the latter’s voting machines had led to fraud in the 2020 election.
"Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said in a statement, revealing that Carlson’s last airing took place on Friday, April 21.
Since the parting of ways with Fox News, many have asked what’s next for the media personality.
On Wednesday, Carlson took to Twitter to share a brief video update, without addressing any of the details of the split or what would be next in store for him.
“When you take a little time off, you realize how unbelievably stupid the debates you see on television are, they’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember that we had them. Trust me as someone who participated,” Carlson said in the video.
While Carlson's tweet received 75.2 million views, the clip garnered over 200,000 retweets, more than 900,000 likes and over 22.2 million views.
One Twitter user inaccurately highlighted that Carlson's video received more views than cable news shows did on the day it was posted.
“Tucker Carlson had more views on his first Twitter monologue on Wednesday than all cable news shows for the entire day COMBINED,” the user tweeted, claiming that Tucker's video had 72.7 million views compared to the 53.1 combined million views cable news programs received on Wednesday.
In response, Twitter CEO Elon Musk replied with a simple “wow.”
The user's tweet, however, was questioned by Mashable reporter Matt Binder, who said that the 72.7 million figure, in fact, was the total number of views Tucker's tweet — not the media personality's video — had received.
“This isn’t true. Tucker Carlson’s Twitter video has just over 22 million views, which is still a lot but they couldn’t make this point with that number and the owner of this very website just believes it!” Binder tweeted.
Related Link: Tucker Carlson's Sudden Fox News Exit Ignited Social Media Speculation, Did BlackRock Pull The Strings
Why It’s Important: A report shared on Twitter revealed media viewership figures for Wednesday.
Fox News, which temporarily replaced Carlson with Brian Kilmeade, lost the battle for the key 8 p.m. ET prime-time slot, attracting 1.33 million viewers compared to the 1.33 million viewers Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) unit MSNBC pulled in with Chris Hayes.
Fox News, however, won the overall night for prime time viewers, besting MSNBC, Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) unit CNN and several others.
According to the report, Carlson had averaged 3.25 million viewers in the 8 p.m. time slot in the last quarter.
Carlson could be caught in a bidding war between news networks and other video platforms, including Twitter and Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM).
Some of Carlson's on-air comments and guests over the years have been controversial and could land him a home outside of traditional media — something Musk and Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski seem ready for.
“Cable television is now completely controlled speech. Rumble is the only bastion for authentic speech,” Pavlovski tweeted on Monday.
Following the announcement of Carlson's departure from Fox, Rumble saw its shares jump, suggesting that some investors believe the latter platform could be home to the former Fox News host.
“Corporate media died today. Independent creators are now in the lead,” Pavlovski also tweeted.
Meanwhile, one Twitter user questioned if Twitter would consider making a play for Carlson, encouraging Musk to hire the media personality and create a video platform that could compete with YouTube.
“We don’t hire anyone, but simply enable content creators to prosper on this platform without applying censorship that goes beyond law,” Musk wrote in response.
The billionaire entrepreneur told another user that Twitter creators could make more than YouTube creators in the future.
Read Next: Tucker Carlson An 'Ideal' GOP Presidential Candidate: 8 Sarcastic Reasons From Republican Campaign Manager
Photo: Gage Skidmore via flickr
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