Tucker Carlson Fans Respond to Fox News' First Replacement Host: 'Nope'

Agitated fans of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson are rejecting the network's first attempt at a replacement host.

Long-serving Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade anchored the new show Fox News Tonight in Carlson's former 8 p.m. time slot on Monday, only hours after the network unexpectedly announced that it had decided to "part ways" with Carlson.

"As you probably have heard, Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," Kilmeade said as the show began. "I wish Tucker the best. I'm great friends with Tucker and always will be. But right now, it's time for Fox News Tonight, so let's get started."

Kilmeade is the first in a series of rotating guest hosts who are expected to anchor Fox News Tonight until a permanent successor to Carlson's popular opinion show Tucker Carlson Tonight takes the time slot.

In a tweet shortly before the show was set to air on Monday, Kilmeade urged viewers to "join [him] at 8 p.m.," triggering a firestorm of negative responses from Carlson fans who promised they would not be watching.

"Nope!" tweeted @pmdarnell.

"Hard pass," @Jerz_66 tweeted.

"Not in a million years!" tweeted @GaysForTrump24.

"This is the only replacement for Tucker that I will be happy with, and make it last forever," @CarpeDonktum tweeted alongside an animated GIF of a television screen flashing "no signal."

"Yeah, that's gonna be a no from me, dawg," tweeted @LedStorms.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell," @Right2Liberty tweeted.

"Not a chance," tweeted @Crimsontider. "Fox is dead to me.."

"No Tucker no fox," @drewthompson100 tweeted.

"Sorry Brian, that time slot was Tucker Carlson's and I won't be watching," tweeted @YordieSands. "Good luck to you personally, but you are no Tucker Carlson."

Some Carlson fans claimed that they had canceled subscriptions to streaming service Fox Nation or cable television in response to the decision to drop the conservative pundit.

"Nope again!" @AuthorEKaySims tweeted. "#NOTOFOXNEWS Canceled FOX NATION! I stand with @TuckerCarlson."

"No chance," tweeted @CallahanAutoCo. "Cancelled cable today."

"Good bye!" @ColonelMark4 tweeted alongside an image appearing to show a Fox Nation subscription canceled.

Kilmeade did receive a small number of positive responses, although few said they would definitely be watching him on Monday.

"Honestly my favorite Fox News host has always been Brian Kilmeade so this doesn't effect [sic] me," tweeted @PaulinAntioch.

"I do like Brian Kilmeade but I'm a little to [sic] pissed off to watch that time slot," @Andrew17019007 tweeted.

Newsweek has reached out via email to Fox News for comment.

Kilmeade previously enraged supporters of former President Donald Trump for rejecting false claims that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" and describing the ex-president as "unhinged" after losing the election.

Last month, Kilmeade derisively praised Trump on air for successfully avoiding "having lunch with white supremacists" in recent months, arguing that the former president's 2024 campaign was on "a bit of a roll."

It is unclear when or where Carlson might return to conservative commentary. His exit from Fox News apparently came with little warning, with the now-former host having told viewers that he would be "back" on Monday during his final broadcast on Friday.

Carlson's departure came only days after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems for a massive $787.5 million. It also came after Carlson was named in a lawsuit from his former producer Abby Grossberg, who alleges that he oversaw a hostile and discriminatory work environment.