Fox News Strips Tucker Carlson’s Studio of All Equipment After He Announces Twitter Show: ‘They Took the Set And Everything’
Tucker Carlson’s studio in Maine
Tucker Carlson’s plans to launch a new show on Twitter may have just hit a hitch: Fox News, the cable network that fired him last month, stripped his plush remote studio of all its equipment.
The Daily Mail reported that workers hired by Fox News dismantled Carlson’s studio in a barn in rural Maine. Carlson, who splits his time between his homes in Maine and Florida, had studios built for him by Fox News so he could broadcast Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Carlson’s construction manager Patrick Feeney told the Mail that the studio will have to be totally rebuilt after the Fox crew stripped it to the beams.
“Fox came in last week and got all their sh*t out of there,” said Feeney. “They took the set and everything, all the equipment, the chairs, the desk, the fake walls, everything.”
The move should come as little surprise — as Fox builds remote studios for its top personalities (while retaining ownership of the equipment), and takes them down when they leave the network.
Carlson was fired by Fox News last month shortly after the network settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, though the specific cause of his ouster remains unclear.
Carlson announced that he bring a new version of his show to Twitter — though he may be bound by his lucrative contract with Fox News, which doesn’t expire until 2025. Carlson has threatened legal action against Fox, and he amplified his biographer’s claim that he was let go as part of a secret condition of the Dominion settlement. Fox and Dominion have both denied the accusation.
On the effort to rebuild Carlson’s studio, Feeney said that the infrastructure would have to be repaired after the Fox News crew dismantled the barn. If Carlson wants to host his new show from Maine, Feeney said the repairs will take at least a month. He told the Mail:
There’s no hardware in place at all. There’s not even an infrastructure for a TV studio for a long time…We just came to clean it up and get it looking like something again. There’s no imminent venture. We’re just getting ready in case something does happen. There’s nothing we’re doing other than cleaning the place up, shoring up the walls, making it look good again.
The Mail included pictures of Carlson handling an ax and other equipment on the site while the construction crew gets the studio back into shape. The outlet also cited a source claiming “several Fox employees have already quit” Fox News to join Carlson’s new venture.
