Leaked footage obtained by liberal media watchdog Media Matters shows Tucker Carlson absolutely destroying Fox News’ digital streaming service, saying that nobody watches Fox Nation “because the site sucks.”
Prior to Fox’s shocking termination of Carlson last week, the conservative cable giant had made him not only the focal point of its primetime lineup but also Fox Nation. Carlson produced a documentary series and hosted a thrice-weekly, long-form interview program for the streamer.
However, behind the scenes, he was apparently extremely unhappy with the site’s performance and relatively small audience. Preparing for his August 2022 interview with the accused rapist and human trafficker Andrew Tate, Carlson groused to an unknown caller in the leaked video that the majority of the conversation with Tate would be aired online.
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“I don’t want to be a slave to Fox Nation, which I don’t think that people watch anyway,” he fumed. “I’m like a representative of the American media now, speaking to an exile in Romania and welcoming him back into the brotherhood of journalists.”
Asked to wear a sweater in order to look “casual,” Carlson grumbled that he wanted the interview to “look official” before slamming Fox Nation in general. (He did, ultimately, wear a sweater in his friendly chat with Tate.)
“But nobody’s going to watch it on Fox Nation,” the then-Fox News star huffed. “Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks… I’m just frustrated with it. It’s hard to use that site. I don’t know why they’re not fixing it. It's driving me insane.”
After the caller tried to reassure Carlson that they would “play a sizable chunk” of the interview on his primetime show, the far-right host continued to trash Fox Nation.
“We’re, like, working like animals to produce all this content, and the people in charge of it, whoever that guy’s, whatever his name is, like, they’re ignoring the fact that the site doesn’t work,” Carlson sighed. “And I think it’s, like, a betrayal of our efforts. That’s how I feel. So, of course, I resent it.”
After the network made Carlson the face of the streaming service following the 2020 election, network executives boasted that Fox Nation saw a dramatic increase in subscriptions. At the same time, his conspiracy-mired Jan. 6 documentaries for the site prompted longtime contributors to quit Fox while the network’s “hard news” anchors complained internally about Carlson’s extremism.
The release of the leaked video comes amid reports that the primetime star may have been terminated for profanely disrespecting network executives behind closed doors. A representative for Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.
