Untucked: The numbers behind Tucker Carlson Tonight

4/25/23 8:00PM

Untucked

‍Last Friday, Tucker Carlson unknowingly hosted his final show at Fox News, as the network confirmed on Monday it was parting ways with the controversial prime-time personality, an abrupt firing of one of the network’s most-watched anchors. Carlson’s departure came in a week of cable chaos — with high-profile exits at CNN and NBCU — and just days after Fox settled its lawsuit against Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787m, a trial which saw Carlson's texts and emails released during discovery.

Carlson had been a prominent figure at Fox News since joining in 2009, but his screen time — per Stanford’s Cable TV News Analyzer — skyrocketed in 2017 when he took over the coveted 8pm slot from commentator Bill O'Reilly. Regularly racking up 20+ hours of screentime a month, Carlson’s show often drew more than 3 million viewers, consistently ranking as the #1 or #2 cable news show.

That meant big bucks for Fox. Despite some premium advertisers boycotting the show, Variety reports that advertisers spent more than $77m on Tucker Carlson Tonight last year, more than the ~$54m worth of airtime that advertisers bought on The Ingraham Angle and the $50m spent on Hannity. The firing suggests that Fox execs are keen to show that no personality is bigger than the network, with plans to rotate hosts for the prized 8pm slot suggesting the decision was made abruptly, with no “succession” plan in place.

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.