Fox Nation to launch new content with Tucker Carlson
February 18, 2021
FOX Nation, FOX News Media’s on demand subscription-based streaming service, has signed a new, multi-year deal with top-rated FOX News Channel (FNC) primetime host Tucker Carlson to provide flagship content for the digital platform, announced Jason Klarman, President, FOX Nation. Carlson will helm a regular new video podcast, as well as a series of in-depth specials called Tucker Carlson Originals. He will continue to host his current program, Tucker Carlson Tonight, weeknights on FNC at 8 PM/ET.
Beginning in April, Carlson will release at least three new video podcast episodes a week, featuring interviews with newsmakers, as well as a discussion of the issues shaping the country. The Tucker Carlson Originals series will also debut in April, and continue monthly. Episodes will explore a single topic at greater depth than typically done on a live television show. Both the podcast and the long-form specials will only be available on FOX Nation.
In making the announcement, Klarman said, “As we continue to expand and evolve as a service, adding exclusive content from Tucker Carlson will make FOX Nation a must-have service for his most passionate fans.”
Carlson added, “This is my twelfth year at FOX News and I’ve never been more grateful to be here. As other media outlets fall silent or fall in line, FOX News Media’s management has redoubled its commitment to honesty and freedom of speech. I consider that heroic at a time like this.”
The new content will be produced by the seasoned team behind Tucker Carlson Tonight, led by Senior Executive Producer Justin Wells, who has been named FNC’s new Vice President of Tucker Carlson Digital Products. Wells commented, “We have a close relationship with our viewers. We’re excited to continue and expand that relationship on FOX Nation. We have far more stories to tell than we can air in our nightly format. We see this as a welcome expansion of what we’re already doing.”
Tucker Carlson Tonight is one of the top-rated shows in the history of cable news. According to Nielsen Media Research, the program averaged 3.6 million viewers last month, and 653,000 in the younger Adults 25-54 demo, topping both CNN and MSNBC by double-digits in overall viewers. Recently, the show notched the highest-rated monthly viewership of any cable news program in history, with 5.4 million viewers. It has been number one in the 8 PM/ET time slot for 46 consecutive months with total viewers. Carlson has also eclipsed broadcast network programming since Memorial Day of last year. In 2020, he made history by hosting one of the two FNC shows ever to average more than 4 million viewers a night. Since moving to 8 PM/ET, Tucker Carlson Tonight has significantly improved performance in the time slot, which was previously held by The O’Reilly Factor. Carlson’s audience has grown by nearly 35 percent in total viewers, and more than 40 percent in the key Adults 25-54 demo.
In October of 2020, Carlson conducted an exclusive interview with Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter and James Biden, the son and brother of the current president. According to Nielsen Media Research, that interview drew an astounding 7.5 million total viewers and 1.5 million viewers in the 25-54 demo, landing the program in the top three highest-rated shows in all of television for the night.
Carlson joined FNC in 2009 as a political contributor and was named a co-host of FOX & Friends Weekend in 2012. In November of 2016, he was named host of Tucker Carlson Tonight. The show originally debuted at 7 PM/ET. In January of 2017, Carlson moved to 9 PM/ET, and to his current timeslot in April of 2017. Carlson also provided analysis for FNC’s top rated presidential election coverage in 2020 and 2016, as well as the midterm election coverage during the years in between. In 2018, he authored “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution” which was a New York Times bestseller and ranked number one on Amazon.