A wild day in cable news in which Fox News unceremoniously jettisoned Tucker Carlson and CNN similarly defenestrated Don Lemon was, unsurprisingly, picked up on late night television Monday night.
On NBCs Late at nighthost Seth Meyers devoted his “A Closer Look” segment to Carlson’s impeachment, saying, “I don’t think anything could shock me more and then this happened,” before asking, “Does this mean Fox News has woken up?”
Meyers reviewed how the news reportedly came as a surprise even to Carlson, pointing to a strange insect-eating segment that formed the final moments of what would become the anchor’s final show on Fox News. “But really amazing, his last segment on TV wasn’t a rousing soliloquy or a grand farewell, but a reminder to watch a special report, I think, about eating bugs — which is apparently a problem now?” Meijers said.
“This is all such a fitting ending for Tucker because he was always terrified that he would lose his show after being canned by two other cable networks CNN and MSNBC. And he was specifically afraid that Donald Trump would be the one to destroy him That’s why Tucker spent so much time spoon-feeding Trump’s bullshit to his viewers, despite knowing it was all bullshit,” Meyers said of Carlson’s attempts to ride the tiger of Trumpism.
He added: “Tucker made the same mistake anyone who sucks Trump makes. He thought he could leverage Trumpism and use Trump for his own purposes while remaining completely unscathed. But in the end they all learn the same lesson: you can’t let go of a tiger and it won’t be torn apart, even if it’s the biggest dumbest tiger in the zoo.”
On ABCs Jimmy KimmelLive!Carlson’s nemesis Jimmy Kimmel made no attempt to hide his delight at the news, describing it as “an absolutely delightful shock.” “Fox News has broken the bow tie with Tucker Carlson after all these years. It’s ‘divorce roads,’ which means he’s fired,” Kimmel joked.
Kimmel compared Carlson’s abolition, reportedly at Fox Corp. overlord Rupert Murdoch, with an episode of HBO’s Succession and he was trying to convey how crazy things were in the world of cable news, especially since Lemon’s departure from CNN was announced not long after Carlson’s. “For those of you who don’t follow cable, this is like Ronald McDonald and the Burger King were fired on the same day. Presumably neither network knew the other was doing this,” Kimmel said.
Hi, I’m Jimmy Fallon. One of the few TV personalities still employed’ is how The tonight show‘s Jimmy Fallon started his Monday night monologue. “Some people aren’t sure what led to his departure, but Fox said they can think of almost a billion reasons,” Fallon joked in reference to the nearly billion-dollar libel settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.
Fallon didn’t dwell on the Carlson and Lemon news for long, adding that it was “easy to joke that Tucker was gone,” though he wondered, “Who’s going to tell me which M&M is the most awake?” ?”
On Comedy Central The daily show, guest presenter Desi Lydic didn’t hold back when she tackled the subject. “Wow. I can’t believe a network so opposed to gender-affirming surgeries would just cut off their own dick,” Lydic joked about Carlson’s firing.
While discussing the reasons and speculation behind Carlson’s impeachment, Lydic said, “Apparently Tucker was forced to leave by Rupert Murdoch, which is pretty ironic. Tucker said for so many years that Mexican people came to take our jobs. Apparently he should have worried about Australians.
She added, “And we still don’t know exactly what Rupert led. Murdoch to fire his network’s biggest star, but reportedly worried about Carlson’s conspiracy theories around Jan. 6. So let this be a lesson to everyone. If you try to overthrow American democracy, you can stay on TV for another two years and that’s it.”
