Now former Fox News star Tucker Carlson may have lost his high-paying prime-time TV show, but it certainly hasnât dampened his spirits â at least if the evidence of the photos and videos of his encounters since being unceremoniously dumped by the cable news network is any indication.
Indeed, the day after his sudden departure from Fox News, Carlson was all smiles and joking while he was out and about with his wife, Susan.
âRetirement is going great so far,â the former host of âTucker Carlson Tonightâ said Tuesday as he left to take in a romantic dinner with his wife, according to the U.K.âs Daily Mail.
âI havenât eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years,â the 53-year-old commentator added.
When a reporter asked about his future, Carlson just happily replied, âAppetizers plus entree,â before zooming off in his golf cart â âhowling with laughter,â according to the outlet.
Earlier Tuesday, however, he spent time âhuddling with right-hand man Justin Wellsâ to plan out their next move, the Daily Mail reported. Wells, who was the executive producer of âTucker Carlson Tonight,â also lost his job at Fox News on Monday.
Carlson has had no shortage of offers. Glenn Beck of Blaze Media and Jeremy Boreing of The Daily Wire stepped up to offer him a slot with their respective operations.
It seems doubtful that either has the money to afford Carlson, however, and itâs unknown whether heâd accept the offer even if they did.
Whatever he ends up doing, he wonât be able to announce it until after he is fully divested from Fox News. He still has an exit package to negotiate, and there is no telling what restrictions he might have to agree to.
Carlson reportedly is being represented by attorney Bryan Freedman, who is also working on the exit package for former CNN host Don Lemon, who was fired the same day.
While Lemon will be lucky to host a telethon in the wake of his dismissal, Carlson has millions of dollars in the bank and millions more fans than that, and he left Fox News at the peak of his popularity. It seems very likely whatever he does next will be a hit.
Certainly, the future is a blank slate, but many of Carlsonâs supporters seem to believe heâll have an even bigger influence on the nation in his post-Fox days than he has to date.
Carlsonâs fans are also laughing at Fox News because since their favorite commentator was axed, the networkâs ratings have cratered.
As The Associated Press noted Wednesday, the 8 p.m. time slot that had the hourlong âTucker Carlson Tonightâ lost half its audience the day after he was fired.
The AP said replacement host Brian Kilmeade earned 1.33 million viewers on Wednesday. âThatâs down 56% from the 3.05 million viewers Carlson reached last Wednesday, Nielsen said. For all of 2022, Carlson averaged 3.03 million viewers, second only to Foxâs âThe Fiveâ as the most popular program on cable Television,â it said.
Meanwhile, Carlson is unapologetic. On Thursday, he posted a video message on Twitter that earned many times more viewers than his replacement earned on Fox.
The video on his Twitter account had soared to over 74 million views as of Friday morning. Meanwhile, Fox News drew just under 9 million viewers on Tuesday.
Whatever Tucker Carlson has up his sleeve for his next step, he already has notched one victory in the contest for viewers.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.