Tucker Carlson officially replaced Bill O’Reilly at Fox News on Monday evening, and even though O’Reilly left Fox under less-than-ideal and not-at-all seamless circumstances his audience was still devoted to him until the very last moment. In fact most of his base still probably supports him even after he’s lost his most effective platform to spread his political opinions. Even though the Factor host didn’t stay out of sight for long, posting new episodes of his podcast at the beginning of the week, Carlson thought it necessary to give a nod to the big shoes he would be filling in Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Carlson spoke of the host at the top of the show, saying:
“For those of you tuning in expecting to see someone different in this anchor chair, I know the feeling well. I watched Bill O’Reilly at this hour for years, and I always marveled at how well prepared he was, how tough he was and how crisply and directly he expressed his views. What O’Reilly did was not easy. He set a high bar, and I’m gonna do my best to meet it. Thanks for sticking with us.”
Hopefully for Fox News fans that just means he wants to give O’Reilly a lot of credit, and not that he won’t be as prepared or a less crisp host. That’s not exactly what your bosses want to hear the day of a promotion, Tucker! Carlson didn’t elaborate on why he was sitting in O’Reilly’s seat, but his audience probably either already knew or didn’t care rendering an explanation unnecessary.
Here’s video of Carlson’s first show…
(via Deadline)