Tucker Carlson Gets Axed at MSNBC
March 11, 2008

Pundit and broadcaster Tucker Carlson has gotten the boot from MSNBC, being replaced on Monday by a campaign-focused hour hosted by White House correspondent David Gregory. There was no warning, at least in the press, that the often-controversial Tucker Carlson would be shown the door of his own series. This came out of nowhere. Tucker Carlson has had a show on MSNBC since June of 2005 and has struggled in the ratings since then but was still one of the network's most prominent faces. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carlson will stay with the network, he just won't have his own show any more. He has hosted Crossfire on CNN (and had a notorious exchange with Jon Stewart on that show) and Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered on PBS in past years. According to THR, Carlson will stay with MSNBC as a senior campaign correspondent after the show officially goes off the air on Friday but won't have his own hour.

The Tucker Carlson Show will be replaced permanently by Race for the White House, which will be hosted by David Gregory. He's a very familiar face for the network and has been a correspondent from the White house for years and occasionally sits in on Today on NBC. Andrea Mitchell will also host an hour of political news at 1pm on weekdays.

The abrupt pulling of The Tucker Carlson Show wasn't the only change this week on MSNBC. Their most popular show, Countdown with Keith Olberman added more runs, repeating at 10pm and 2am EST, after its live run at 8pm EST. The 9pm show will still be hosted by Dan Abrams but will now be called Verdict with Dan Abrams. The documentary block, which often just consists of repeats of Dateline: To Catch a Predator or MSNBC Investigates, will still air from 11pm to 2am.