Fox News Channel is considering “multiple scenarios” for its primetime lineup after the ouster of Tucker Carlson, with the network declining to comment on a recent report that veteran Sean Hannity might move into its 8 p.m. lead-off hour.
“No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday.
Fox News issued the comment in the wake of The Drudge Report posting the notion that Hannity would move to 8, while Jesse Watters, who has fared well at 7 p.m., would move into the primetime schedule, along with Greg Gutfeld, who hosts a late-night-styled 11 p.m. program.
Such a move would have significant ramifications that would not dovetail with recent Fox News strategy. Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. program has been a break-out success with the network’s viewers, and part of a move that has extended the outlet’s opinion block from 7 p.m. to midnight. Watters’ show at 7 has also been considered successful, and he might seem like a natural successor to Carlson. Watters is also more right-leaning than others on the roster and he got his start making appearances at 8 p.m. on Bill O’Reilly’s show. But people familiar with Fox News say executives have suggested that Watters was doing well in the 7 p.m. hour he began anchoring in 2022 and may not be Carlson’s successor.
There would also be a question about Laura Ingraham, who has led Fox’s 10 p.m. hour since launching her program, “The Ingraham Angle,” in the fall of 2017. Moving Hannity to 8 would put the veteran host in a different hour for the third time. He has previously anchored both the 9 and 10 slots. In recent months, Fox News has paired Hannity with a live, in-studio crowd, adding new elements to a tenure that has lasted since Fox News launched in 1996, when Hannity was paired with left-leaning co-anchor Alan B. Colmes.
Making such jigsaw pieces fit together is left to not only Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott but primetime head Meade Cooper. In a different era, the Fox News primetime grid was inviolate. The network schedule was largely set in stone, with O’Reilly, Hannity and Greta Van Susteren holding forth weeknight after weeknight.
In 2013, that all changed, with Megyn Kelly joining the evening lineup at 9 p.m., moving Hannity to 10 and Van Susteren to early evenings. By 2017, Fox News had to rebuild with Kelly exiting for an ill-fated stint at NBC News and O’Reilly ousted following claims of sexual harassment and settlements paid to accusers. Carlson got a 9 p.m. slot in 2017. He moved an hour earlier after O’Reilly’s exit.
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