Fox News Shoots Down Rumors From 'Left Wing Activists' That ...

Fox News released a statement on Wednesday blasting “left wing activists” who took to Twitter and reported that the network planned to fire prime time host Laura Ingraham after Matt Drudge’s eponymous news aggregation site reported on a prime time shake-up at the network.

The Drudge Report dropped a siren-blaring headline on Wednesday morning, teasing major scheduling changes at the long-dominant cable news network. The site eventually reported that Sean Hannity would take over Tucker Carlson’s old 8 p.m. time slot and that hosts Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld would also be moved to prime time.

A Fox News spokesperson reacted to Drudge’s report by telling Mediaite, “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration.”

Jon Cooper, a Democratic activist, decided to jump into the mix with a wild claim and tweeted after Drudge’s reporting:

BREAKING: Laura Ingraham has reportedly been FIRED by Fox News. Waiting for formal confirmation by the network.

More details in below thread as they become known

Fox, of course, never did confirm and Cooper’s tweet to his 1.2 million followers spread like wildfire on the social media site.

Drudge’s reporting never mentioned Ingraham, who currently hosts the highly-rated Ingraham Angle. Cooper appeared to base his claim on the reporting that Hannity, Watters, and Gutfeld would occupy the three hours of prime time between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Should Drudge’s reporting come to fruition, Ingraham would indeed be out of prime time, but there is no indication she would be out of a job. Ingraham notably has long won her 10 p.m. hour and was not one of the Fox hosts who featured prominently in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit.

Fox News hit back at Cooper with a statement, declaring, “Reports based on various tweets by left wing activists are wildly inaccurate – Laura Ingraham, the top-rated woman in cable news, is now and will continue to be a prominent host and integral part of the Fox News lineup.”

Fox, since Carlson’s ouster in late April, has seen a steep decline in prime time viewers – losing in prime time to MSNBC on Monday – which has led to observers and pundits to speculate about further changes.

Carlson averaged 3.25 million in the first quarter of 2023 at 8 p.m., the same hour on Tuesday brought in 1.43 million total viewers, below the average of 1.66 million viewers Fox saw in the week after Carlson’s ouster. A rotating cast of hosts including Brian Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones, Kayleigh McEnany, and currently Will Cain replaced Carlson after his abrupt firing.

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