Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s show returned to huge fanfare on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
In contrasting news, CNN boss Chris Licht was suddenly fired from the cable news giant on Wednesday amid flagging ratings and staff turnover.
“I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive, told CNN editors on a call Wednesday morning. “We’re in the process of conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader.”
CNN struggled to maintain an audience of a few hundred thousand viewers under Licht. Meanwhile, Carlson’s short 10-minute first episode quickly gained over 65 million views on Twitter.
It is proof that the future of the media is online, not on network television.
Carlson’s first episode focused on his thoughts on the Ukrainian-Russia war, where he expressed anti-Ukraine thoughts. But he also talked about the changes in the news media, and how his show and those like it could change the future.
He compared Twitter to the shortwave radio and the cultural impact it had in the former USSR. The radio managed to get free information to Soviet citizens trapped behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
“As of today, we have come to Twitter, which we hope will be the shortwave radio under the blankets,” Carlson said.
“We’re told there are no gatekeepers here. If turns out to be false, we’ll leave,” he said about Twitter. “But in the meantime, we are grateful to be here. We’ll be back with much more very soon.”
Take a look —
Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023
The Horn editorial team