Tucker Carlson exits stage right

March 10, 2008

When MSNBC added Tucker Carlson to its prime-time lineup two years ago, the network appeared anxious to capitalize on Fox News’ success as a Republican network. If cable-news viewers were flocking to a conservative, partisan network, MSNBC seemed to believe, then the answer was to keep up by putting more conservatives on the air.

The audience didn’t seem to agree and Carlson’s ratings were consistently awful, no matter which time slot MSNBC gave him (and they gave him several). Though it drew the ire of the network brass, Carlson would even mock himself, on the air, for having a tiny audience. In November, an NBC executive told the NYT he’s “in real danger of being canceled.”

It looks like the network finally got tired of waiting.

Insiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson’s 6pmET show Tucker is getting the axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.

In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that Tucker would be replaced “for a new project.” In its 33-month run, Carlson’s show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats. At 6pmET, it builds on its Harbdall lead-in on some days, but loses audience on others.

Carlson is expected to host the show through next week, with his new role and title to take effect March 17. We’re told he’ll also be reporting from the campaign trail.

So long, Tucker, we hardly knew you. As for his replacement, we should learn more in a few hours, but in the meantime, I have some ideas.

This NYT piece from a few months ago may offer a hint of what’s to come.

Riding a ratings wave from “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” a program that takes strong issue with the Bush administration, MSNBC is increasingly seeking to showcase its nighttime lineup as a welcome haven for viewers of a similar mind.

So, might MSNBC intentionally move to the left? Not exactly.

“It happened naturally,” Phil Griffin, a senior vice president of NBC News who is the executive in charge of MSNBC, said Friday, referring specifically to the channel’s passion and point of view from 7 to 10 p.m. “There isn’t a dogma we’re putting through. There is a ‘Go for it.’”

And by “it,” I think Griffin means “higher ratings.” Olbermann has soared over the last year or so, and I believe Countdown is the only show on MSNBC’s primetime lineup that beats CNN, and is at near parity with Fox News in the “money demo.” It’s not complicated — if Olbermann is offering reality-based coverage of current events, and his audience keeps growing, maybe that should be a big hint to the network’s program executives.

And if so, can the network please give Rachel Maddow a show?

Thats all MSNBC needs to lose what credibility they have left for this election cycle. She is solidly in left field with Obama. MSNBC might just as well endorse Obama because it seems that you have

  • Rachel Maddow rocks.

    And how about putting Phil Donohue back on the air? Seems like he was cancelled because he was a little too accurate in his assessment of the Bush crime family.

    I love how Schmucker Carlson gets to take so many bites at the apple, and then still gets invited back on to further pollute the airwaves as a guest after proving conclusively that no one wants to hear his retarded opinions.

    Liberal media my ass.

  • Thats all MSNBC needs to lose what credibility they have left for this election cycle. She is solidly in left field with Obama. MSNBC might just as well endorse Obama because it seems that you have

    What does the political leaning of an opinion show have to do with credibility?

  • Rachel Maddow is a great guest commentator. But as a former listener of her radio show, I think she is a terrible host.

  • I bet Tucker’s replacement is worse than he was.
    I wouldn’t doubt that the brass at MSNBC think he failed because he wasn’t conservative enough…

  • They could give a show to the late Morton Downey Jr.

    Not only would the cancerous corpse have more appeal than Tucker Carlson, the climate has changed so much since the 1980s that Downey would be considered a centrist these days.

  • Madow? Really? I have only seen her recently and have to say, she is underwhelming. Given the opportunity to comment on the race and the relative merits of the candidates she spends all her time whining about how the contested Democratic primary is leaving the field to McCain and how he will emerge in a much stronger position.

    First of all, this is nonsense and whoever the Democratic candidate is will be in a much stronger position, both because they are both exceptional candidates and the structural issues–8 years of a wildly unpopular president, wildly unpopular war, cratering economy–strongly favor the Democrats even if they were running a ham sandwich. Second, why is she using her precious air time to whine rather than a hard critique of McCain and the Republicans. She just doesn’t do anything for me.

  • One wonders what ratings they might have garnered if they hadn’t cancelled Phil Donahue

    Media analyst Rick Ellis, who writes for the excellent http://www.allyourtv.com website, makes a strong case that Donahue is being elbowed off the air at this point — when his ratings have actually been ticking upward — precisely because it appears that a war is coming. According to Ellis, Donahue’s “fate was sealed a number of weeks ago after NBC News executives received the results of a study commissioned to provide guidance on the future of the news channel.” According to Ellis, the study suggested “that Donahue presented a ‘difficult public face for NBC in a time of war” and expressed that, in a time of war, Donahue’s show might become “a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”

  • NBC move to the left? What a fantasy. It’s only when the public realizes, assuming they ever do, that the blowhard pundits, left or right (although there aren’t many on the left), are a form of propagandistic entertainment, not a source of news or even information that they will vanish from the airwaves. The corporate media will always favor the right, but maybe not the lunatics if there is a public shift.

  • Tucker comes off the air on March 17—just in time for St. Patrick’s day. It’s about time they got around to slaying that snake….

  • This, and other personnel changeouts like it, should serve as a warning that people just don’t want to listen to that drivel any more – at least, not at the salary Tucker Carlson was pulling down. But you’d never know it from the continuing bullshit out of the White House. I guess they’re just slow to catch on.

  • Before I get too happy, I’ll wait and see who they replace him with. There is always the unpalatable likelihood the replacement will be worse.

  • I hope that whomever they get, that he or she is not predictable. I like Keith Olberman, but he gets predictable. I like to be informed, and have my beliefs and attitudes affirmed at times and at other times challenged. I want someone who doesn’t always buy the party line.

    And I want someone who respects his guests and doesn’t invite people on to argue with them. If someone is invited on, they have information or a point of view that’s valuable; if not, then don’t have them on. Push-back questions are fine, but arguing is out. Bill Moyers does the best job of engaging his guests in an enlightening conversation.

    And please, no Charlie Rose.

  • hey, tucker can always have another stab at “dancing with the stars”.

    my question is: who are all the ivy league frat boys gonna watch now?

  • I moved permanently to MSNBC from CNN last year because of the diverse hosts. I never minded Carlson. Sorry to see him go.

  • I used to like Keith Olberman, then he decided to become completely biased towards Obama, and like this blog, has lost all sense of objectivity.

    I’m afraid that despite the fact that I couldn’t stand Tucker Carlson, this move means that they are moving even further away from any claim to be unbiased in their coverage.

    Good bye Tucker, you won’t be missed.

  • I’m actually going to miss Tucker. He and Bill Press had great chemistry when they were both on Crossfire and The Spin Room (anyone remember that?) and whenever Press appeared on his show.

    His show wasn’t something I would watch everyday, but he was mildly entertaining at worst. Maybe if he were more sincere with his conservative and libertarian leanings, because there were times when he simply demonstrated he was the Republican hack everyone thought he was and that couldn’t have helped at all.

  • Greg (18) I can pretty much guess about when you stopped liking Olbermann, because he was pretty biased in favor of Clinton before that. Have you tried Dan Abrams. I’d say he’d be about your best bet until the general election, when to becomes a McCainiac.

  • …they are moving even further away from any claim to be unbiased in their coverage. -Greg

    Yeah, Tucker was anchoring them firmly in the realm of unbiased. Gotta bridge I’d like to sell you.

  • Yeah, Tucker was anchoring them firmly in the realm of unbiased. Gotta bridge I’d like to sell you. -doubtful

    No, but at least he presented different points of view, and sometimes Tucker said things that made sense (not often).

  • Or maybe MSNBC realized that the guy whose father headed up the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund (and who never managed to disclose that fact on the air) wasn’t the best choice for an “unbiased” moderator.

  • I can pretty much guess about when you stopped liking Olbermann, because he was pretty biased in favor of Clinton before that.

    True. Olbermann is a recent Obama convert. He had Clinton on Countdown at least twice last year, and his bias was obvious. No doubt his conversion had something to do with the thoroughly distasteful way she’s conducted her campaign.

  • Given the conservative bias of NBC News (Thanks to Jack Welch) they will NOT
    put Rachel or any other obvious Liberal on the air. . . Keith is an abberation from their Matthews, Russert, Williams alter boy crowd. . .

    Give Limbaugh his due . . . His constant chatter about “the drive-by media” has worked. The main stream media is clearly tilted to the Right in reaction. . . Dowd, Friedman et.al., helped GWB in 2000 and they are getting lined up this time to give us McCain. . . The crew following McCain really deserve to be paid by his Campaign – they find the “cranky old man” so adorable they do not find his little quirks worth of reporting. . . Kind of like Bush was treated 8 years ago?

  • I listen to Maddow every day and I think she would be an incredibly good host for a show. And she’s not biased toward Obama, although if she were does that disqualify her?

    I think she could make a much better show than even Olberman, although with admittedly less fireworks in her scathing criticisms of Bush. Cable news would be better with her there, we’ll see if they figure that out…

    Also, Tucker is the one that originally got Rachel all of her opportunities for making appearances on MSNBC, so it’d be a bit ironic if she were to replace him.

  • Good flipping riddance to Tucker.

    And if we’re playing the “name a favorite radio personality” game, I’m very fond of Thom Hartmann.
    No clue whether he’s telegenic or not though.

  • I heard about Tucker’s demise on the Bill Press Radio show this morning on the drive in. Because of my unpredictability in getting home, I hardly caught him on the tube. All the nightly news programs re-hash the same stuff anyways, so I watch Olbermann. He has a much more optimisitc and inclusive interview style. Matthews and Tucker seemed more bombastic and in your face. They were trying for the shock value, in your face commentary. Olbermann lets the weight of the news and his special commentaries be the shock.

    And here I thought I was the only one that wanted Rachael Maddow on the air. I think she makes a great radio host.

  • No, but at least he presented different points of view, and sometimes Tucker said things that made sense (not often).

    Tucker was a hack, through and through. He was nothing more than MSNBC’s pathetic attempt to cash in on the idiots who watch FOX and occasionally change the channel.

    There are plenty of reasoned and nuanced conservative voices out there to provide balance against liberals. But you’ll never find them hosting television shows because they don’t go on irrational tirades off into fantasy land, and thus they’re not good for ratings.

    Sadly for poor Tucker, he wasn’t good for ratings even with his nonsensical rants.

  • Now if only CNN would follow suit with Glenn Beck…

    I’m not asking for ideological purity at any of the networks.
    But I don’t think sane and reality-based pundits from both sides is too much to ask…

  • The term “douche bag” is so overused these days, but it applies quite nicely to Tucker. He personified the whole trend of “media personalities” who aren’t that smart nor well-read yet feed controversies du jour by rehashing someone else’s talking points until the audience begins to believe they must be true.

    While some have written that Tucker seemed to be coming around as of late, he never was anything more than another face with conservative credentials to shine the Republican cause and automatically badmouth Democrats.

    MSNBC and its audience would be well served to go for someone with brains rather than ideology. Olberman isn’t watchable because of any particular political slant he may or may not have but because he knows what he’s talking about and is willing to ask questions and challenge “facts” when others in the media just nod along. Smart is good TV, pandering to a certain constituency is not.

  • Well the news is out! The replacement show is a round table with Denny Hastert, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove moderating and as a nod to diversity, Alan Keyes in the far right chair! Now don’t you miss Tucker? Even a little?

  • Now if only CNN would follow suit with Glenn Beck… -Will

    Then MSNBC would hire him.

  • MSNBC is a liberal company that shouldn’t be allowed on the air. The media is 99% liberal or socialist which ever fits.OBAMA is from my state and should be under inditement with his friend Tony” slum lord” Rizko. Name one thing he ever did that helped the country!!!!!!
    You are wishing for a double talking BS artist that couldn’t teach a dog to bark.
    He is going to reward the non working people that are voting for him and you will pay the bill. I hope the indictment comes before the flake is elected.

  • For those of you that can’t count your feet, The Illinois Govenor and OBAMA are knee deep in this political coruption case that Rizko is standing trial for as we speak.
    Don’t any of you nuts read the paper?

  • For those of you that can’t count your feet, The Illinois Govenor and OBAMA are knee deep in this political coruption case that Rizko is standing trial for as we speak.
    Don’t any of you nuts read the paper? This is not a duplicate of my previous comments.
    This is another case of trying to keep the truth from the public

  • Maybe, their is a god. TUCKER CARLSON was a no talent hack. With no credencials to speak of to qualify him to speak on any issue. MSNBC did their proud by axing him. RACHAL MADOW HAS AN IVY LEAGUE EDUCTION AND A INFORMED POINT OF VIEW. MSNBC would be lucky to have her. I would watch every night. ken in portland

  • DOES ANYBODY WATCH MSNBC ANYMORE? THEIR PUNDITS HAVE BEEN TOTALLY DISGRACED IN THEIR COVERAGE OF THE PRIMRY. FOX IS DEFINITLY MORE FAIR WITH THEIR COVERAGE. OLBERMAN WAS OK UNTIL HE JOINED THE REST OF THE BUMS WITH THEIR PROTECTION OF OBAMA.

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