Jesse Watters is the perfectly pathetic Tucker Carlson replacement on Fox News

Jesse Watters is taking over Tucker Carlson’s slot in the Fox News primetime lineup.

Of course he is. Watters is the perfect, pathetic replacement. Doubling down on idiocy is quite the flex.

Conspiracy theories, defenses of Donald Trump that have nothing to do with reality (though we know now that off-camera Carlson wasn’t such a fanboy), blaming Joe Biden for every cloud that blocks the sun — this is what Watters is good at.

Telling the truth? Eh, not so much.

Again, the perfect replacement.

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It’s not exactly a new gig for the smarmy Watters, more the same thing in a different time slot. Fox News is shuffling its primetime deck. Laura Ingraham is being shunted to Watters’ old spot, at 4 p.m. Arizona time. Watters will follow at 5 p.m., Sean Hannity at 6 p.m. and Greg Gutfeld at 7 p.m.

There haven’t been four hours that scary since the last time a theater played a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Night of the Living Dead” double feature at Halloween.

All this happens in the wake of the network ridding itself of Carlson, which happened in April, just days after Fox News agreed to a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in a defamation case soon after the jury was seated.

Tucker Carlson was irresponsible. Jesse Watters is worse

What Carlson did on Fox News was reprehensible. But you have to admit, however grudgingly, that he was good at it. (Although you only have to watch his sad little Twitter show for a couple of minutes to see how important the network’s gleaming production was to his success.)

Watters sings a lot of the same tunes Carlson did, but he is definitely not good at it. It’s like a dumbed-down version of Carlson’s worldview. Carlson was irresponsible and dangerous. Watters, arrogant without a portfolio, just seems kind of clueless, happy to latch onto whatever the farthest-right talking points happen to be at the moment.

Remember when, in December 2021 during a right-wing conference in Phoenix, Watters suggested to the audience that they should “ambush” Dr. Anthony Fauci and “go in for the kill shot” when confronting the country’s top infectious-disease expert with false and misleading claims about the origin of COVID-19?

What a guy. The network defended him, of course, saying his remarks were metaphorical. Nice try. Instead, they gave him a show, and now they’re, in effect, promoting him again.

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After the Dominion Voting settlement, Fox News has doubled down on going after Biden

It’s an interesting time at Fox News, words it seems like I’ve typed a lot lately. The Dominion settlement leaves them in a prickly spot. The network is desperate to hold onto right-wing viewers — that desperation is what led to the suit in the first place — and the easiest way to do that is to espouse conspiracy theories, nationalism and whatever lie Trump is telling at the moment.

Tossing out the word “woke” is probably good for a few hundred thousand viewers here and there, as well. Fish, barrel, etc.

But out-and-out defamation would seem to be off the table. Not to worry. Instead of just parroting Trump’s absurd claims, Fox News has taken a different approach lately to satisfy his base: going after Biden. Always. No matter what the story, spin it in such a way that reminds us that the president is to blame for … everything.

Trump gets indicted on 37 felony counts stemming from his handling of classified documents? Yeah, whatever. How about Biden? He had some classified documents in his possession, too, and is under investigation for it. (Never mind that he gave them back when asked — we’ve got a show to do here.)

And at all costs, no matter what other story is dominating the news cycle, never, ever forget: HUNTER BIDEN! It’s the Benghazi of its day.

MSNBC has been gaining a little ratings traction lately, so it’ll be interesting to watch and see if the revamped Fox News lineup boosts viewership.

It’ll be more interesting not to.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jesse Watters replaces Tucker Carlson and Fox doubles down on idiocy