Sean Hannity: Last News

Tucker Carlson is being replaced.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Jesse Watters, the wisecracking conservative who got his start with man-on-the-street interview segments for Fox News opinion host Bill O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. program, is about to enjoy a homecoming of sorts. Watters will take over Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour, assuming a role previously assigned to Tucker Carlson. The move is part of a broad overhaul of Fox News’ primetime schedule that takes place in the wake of Carlson’s sudden ouster and a subsequent decline in viewership at the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. Watters had previously led Fox News’ 7 p.m. show. Fox News will also move Greg Gutfeld into the primetime block, giving him the 10 p.m. hour, while the current occupant, the conservative firebrand Laura Ingraham. takes up the reins of the early-evening 7 p.m. hour. Sean Hannity will keep his perch at 9 p.m., a slot he has held since 2017. Trace Gallagher’s late-night news program, “Fox News @ Night,” will follow Gutfeld at 11 p.m., an hour earlier than its previous midnight slot.

It was contentious yet cordial. Both parties were assertive but didn’t shout (well, maybe a little). Yes, there was some talking over each other as California Gov. Gavin Newsom sat down with Sean Hannity for an interview on Fox News’ Hannity, but it was almost a respite from the daily yelling heads on cable news.

California Governor Gavin Newsom will sit down for an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, on the heels of Newsom’s proposal for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution to address gun safety.

Bret Baier will interview former President Donald Trump for Fox News’ Special Report on June 19.

Fox News said that it is considering changes to its primetime lineup following the exit of Tucker Carlson, but it suggested that a report that Sean Hannity would fill the slot was premature.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Channel is considering “multiple scenarios” for its primetime lineup after the ouster of Tucker Carlson, with the network declining to comment on a recent report that veteran Sean Hannity might move into its 8 p.m. lead-off hour. “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday. Fox News issued the comment in the wake of The Drudge Report posting the notion that Hannity would move to 8, while Jesse Watters, who has fared well at 7 p.m., would move into the primetime schedule, along with Greg Gutfeld, who hosts a late-night-styled 11 p.m. program. Such a move would have significant ramifications that would not dovetail with recent Fox News strategy. Gutfeld’s 11 p.m. program has been a break-out success with the network’s viewers, and part of a move that has extended the outlet’s opinion block from 7 p.m. to midnight. Watters’ show at 7 has also been considered successful, and he might seem like a natural successor to Carlson. Watters is also more right-leaning than others on the roster and he got his start making appearances at 8 p.m. on Bill O’Reilly’s show. But people familiar with Fox News say executives have suggested that Watters was doing well in the 7 p.m. hour he began anchoring in 2022 and may not be Carlson’s successor.

CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump beat the cable news competition, as expected, with an average of 3.12 million viewers, according to early Nielsen numbers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Kaitlan Collins spent Wednesday night going toe to toe on live TV with a former President who refused to acknowledge her fact-checking of his many conspiracy theories and untruths. And that just may be a warm up. Collins, the CNN up-and-comer who has gone from White House correspondent to morning anchor all before turning 35, is widely expected to be given new anchoring duties at 9 p.m., according to two people familiar with the matter. The hour is one of the most competitive on the cable-news schedule and has served as a home to some of the most popular hosts in the format, including Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity and Chris Cuomo. CNN declined to make executives available for comment. Puck previously reported the looming deal, which could be unveiled in days to come — barring unforeseen changes, or a pivot in the strategic thinking of CNN CEO Chris Licht, one of these people cautioned.

settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the network for allegedly airing false claims about the 2020 election.Fox News ultimately agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to resolve the lawsuit, without having to issue an apology for the statements in question.As part of discovery, Dominion sought out internal communications at Fox News, some of which were made public. According to The Washington Post, those communications included text messages from Carlson.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sean Hannity was blindsided by Fox News’ announcement that Tucker Carlson is parting ways with the network. Carlson was Fox News’ most-watched primetime host with his 8 p.m. ET news hour “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which Hannity then followed in the 9 p.m. hour with his own eponymous series. Carlson’s show launched in November 2016, while “Hannity” has been a Fox News flagship series since 2009. “It’s very hard,” Hannity said at the start of his radio show, “The Sean Hannity Show,” regarding Carlson’s Fox News departure (via The Wrap). “My phone has been blowing up all day. The hard part for me is I don’t have a clue… I have no idea. Was it Tucker’s decision? Was it Fox’s? Was it a mutual agreement that they had? I don’t know.”

As the news that both Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon were out at their respective networks hit the front pages this morning, a slew of boldfaced names began to react, chiefly to Carlson’s departure.

Fox News has settled Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned organization, averting a lengthy, expensive and certain to be embarrassing trial.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corporation and Dominion Voting Systems agreed to settle a much-discussed $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit mere hours after a jury had been seated to consider the matter in Delaware’s Superior Court. Attorneys for the two sides had been set to deliver opening statements to the jury. But that activity was delayed Tuesday after Judge Eric M. Davis called for a lunch break. “The parties have resolved their case,” the judge said. The legal case had already generated intense scrutiny, with documents, emails and texts from senior Fox executives and well-known Fox News anchors and hosts all suggesting many people at the company knew they were disseminating conspiracy theories around the 2020 presidential election and Dominion Voting’s role in it.

After a one-day delay and amidst whispers of settlement talks, Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox News is set to begin Tuesday in Wilmington, DE.

Popular hip-hop media personality DJ Akademiks has signed an exclusive streaming deal with Rumble, a site that brands itself as “immune to cancel culture”; hosts right-wing figures such as Dinesh D’Souza, Dan Bongino, and Sean Hannity, as well as the Donald Trump-owned platform Truth Social; and is funded in part by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Republican Ohio senator J.D. Vance.

Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt are true.The long-running romance was confirmed in photos obtained by on Tuesday, showing the TV personalities sitting together arm-in-arm at a restaurant and traveling together with Earhardt's 7-year-old daughter in Palm Beach, Florida.Fox New is not commenting on the reports of their relationship.Hannity, 61, and Earhardt, 49 -- two of the network's most prominent and popular hosts — first sparked romance rumors three years ago, but have largely remained tight-lipped about their connection and reserved when it comes to being seen together in public before now.Earhardt shares her daughter, Hayden, with her ex-husband, former Clemson Tigers quarterback Will Proctor. The pair married in October 2012, and Earhardt filed for divorce in October 2018.She and Hannity were first romantically linked in August 2019.Hannity was previously married to Jill Rhodes for over two decades.

Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost and Michael Che took multiple swings at Fox News and Donald Trump on the show.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch could be called upon to testify in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit suit against Fox News and Fox Corp., per a Delaware judge who says he is not against calling upon the media moguls. If the attorneys for Dominion issue trial subpoenas to force a testimony from the Fox leaders, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a public hearing Wednesday he, “would not quash it and I would compel them to come,” per NBC News. “It would be my discretion that they come,” Davis said. Dominion’s attorneys requested in a letter to the court Wednesday that live testimony be required from Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, as well as Fox board member and former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Fox exec Viet Dinh. Davis approved the request to compel each of them to testify, according to NBC News.

 Unless Rupert Murdoch and Fox News settle soon, Dominion Voting Systems will have its day in court in its defamation case against the combative conservative cable newser.

Dominion Voting Systems’ upcoming defamation trial against Fox News and Fox Corp., scheduled to begin on April 17, may very well feature a parade of the network’s news personalities taking the stand, with both sides in the case planning to call figures including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Bret Baier.