Tucker Carlson returned to the digital airwaves on Tuesday, with his first episode of commentary on his new chosen platform — Twitter.
Fox News fired Carlson in late April, a sudden move many speculate was part of the fine print in the settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which had filed a defamation lawsuit against the network.
“Tucker on Twitter” Episode 1 garnered over 25 million views in the first four hours. Carlson talked about the war in Ukraine, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River in Kherson Oblast, and who may have been responsible for blowing up the dam, which he called an “act of terrorism.” Serious flooding downriver has resulted, necessitating the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Russia and Ukraine have each blamed the other for the dam’s demise. Carlson has his theories.
His first episode runs 10 minutes and had acquired over 31,500 comments, hundreds of thousands of “likes” and over 109,000 retweets in the first four hours after its launch. With the reach of over 25 million views, he has far surpassed what he had on Fox News, where he was the highest rated. In February, Carlson drew an audience of 3.5 million views, making “Tucker Carlson Tonight” the highest-rated cable news show.
Since he was fired from Fox, the ratings for that Fox time slot have dropped by 50% and the network’s audience among 25- to 54-year-olds has shrunk by 66%.
