Jesse Watters Chosen to Replace Tucker Carlson in Primetime Fox News Slot

Opinion program 'Jesse Watters Primetime' will air weekdays at 8 p.m. in the slot once occupied by 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'

Fox News has tapped Jesse Watters to replace longtime host Tucker Carlson for its primetime 8 p.m. slot, the network announced Monday.

Watters, co-host of The Five, has already been hosting opinion program Jesse Watters Primetime in the 7 p.m. time slot, "featuring Watters’ fresh take on the major headlines of the day while interviewing newsmakers from across the country," according to Fox News' announcement.

The 7 p.m. hour will now be filled with Laura Ingraham's The Ingraham Angle, which previously aired weeknights at 10.

Related: Fox News' Jesse Watters Jokes About Flattening Future Wife's Tires So He Could Drive Her Home

Carlson, 53, abruptly departed Fox News in April, with the network announcing in a statement the two parties had "agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor."

In the statement, Fox News added that Carlson's last program was just two days before the announcement was made. Beginning the next evening, the network aired Fox News Tonight as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host was chosen.

RELATED: Tucker Carlson Departs Fox News, Effective Immediately

Carlson played a role in a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought against Fox News by voting equipment company Dominion Voting Systems, which was the subject of conspiracies of widespread election fraud and other wrongdoing in the wake of the November 2020 presidential election.

The voting company settled with the network for $787.5 million, but not before text messages and emails by Carlson and other network personalities were made public as part of court filings.

In addition to privately complaining about Donald Trump, even as he publicly courted his supporters, Carlson's text messages show that he lambasted Fox's management after the network accurately called the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.

The New York Times reported that one message in particular — in which Carlson admitted to rooting for a "group of Trump guys" to kill "an Antifa kid" — alarmed executives at Fox News when it came to light as part of a lawsuit.

RELATED: A Timeline of Tucker Carlson's Controversies

The Times reports that the message was sent to a producer at the network on January 2021, shortly after the Capitol riots. "A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington," Carlson wrote, according the Times. "A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s--- out of him. It was three against one, at least."

The text message continued: "Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It's not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it."

According to the Times, one day after the Fox board saw the message, they told executives at the company they were hiring an outside law firm to investigate Carlson's conduct.

Carlson was also mentioned in a lawsuit filed by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who alleged that she experienced harassment and discrimination, and was on the receiving end of anti-Semitic comments while working for the network.

Grossberg, who previously worked as a booker on Tucker Carlson Tonight, further argues in her complaint that she "was isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her."

Fox has denied the claims, saying in a statement it would "continue to vigorously defend Fox against her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees."

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