Tucker Carlson is a political news anchor in the United States, as well as a journalist, political analyst, commentator, author, and producer. He has never shied away from expressing his political views in public as an ardent libertarian-conservative. He was hired at ‘CNN’ because of this quality. However, following his legendary verbal confrontation with comedian Jon Stewart on his show ‘Crossfire,’ he was fired. From 2005 until 2008, he worked for ‘MSNBC,’ where he hosted the nightly program ‘Tucker.’ Carlson was hired by ‘Fox News,’ where his nightly political talk show, ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ set a TRP record. Carlson is a frequent political pundit and panelist on many political talk shows in addition to anchoring. He’s also appeared on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ albeit he was the show’s first contestant to be eliminated in that season. Carlson is also a print journalist who has contributed to a number of publications.
Childhood and Adolescence
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson was born on May 16, 1969, in San Francisco, California, to artist Lisa Lombardi and Richard Warner Carlson, a former US ambassador to the Seychelles. Richard also worked as a “gonzo” reporter before becoming the director of “Voice of America” and president of “Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
Buckley Peck Carlson (after Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson) is his younger brother by two years. In 1976, Carlson’s parents split. When their mother left the family to pursue a “bohemian” lifestyle, the children stayed with their father. She had virtually little interaction with her family after that. She later married Michael Vaughn, an artist.
Carlson’s father remarried in 1979 as well. Patricia Caroline Swanson, his second wife, was the daughter of the owner of ‘Swanson Enterprises.’ When Richard married her, she was divorced. Carlson and his brother were later legally adopted by her.
Carlson grew raised in La Jolla, California, with his brother. He had relocated there with his family when he was in the first grade. He went to ‘La Jolla Country Day School,’ a private school in La Jolla, California.
Carlson then went to the boarding school ‘St. George’s School,’ in Midtown, Rhode Island. In 1991, he graduated from Hartford, Connecticut’s ‘Trinity College’ with a BA in history.
Carlson’s father inspired him to become a journalist after his application to join the ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ was turned down.
Career of Tucker Carlson
Carlson’s first employment was as a fact-checker for ‘Policy Review,’ a national conservative publication. He quit and traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he worked as a correspondent for the ‘Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’ newspaper, dissatisfied with the working conditions there.
Carlson wrote several essays and a book titled ‘People versus. Crime: How Citizens Can Restore Order to America’s Streets’ around the same time. He was, however, pessimistic about the book’s chances of success. As a result, he terminated the book deal.
He began working for the ‘Weekly Standard’ magazine in 1995. ‘New York,’ ‘Reader’s Digest,’ ‘Esquire,’ ‘The New Republic,’ ‘The New York Times Magazine,’ and ‘The Daily Beast,’ among others, have published Carlson’s columns.
Carlson made the switch to television in 2000, co-hosting ‘The Spin Room,’ a short-lived show. He’d stumbled into the show by accident. A receptionist had approached him over lunch one day, asking what he knew about the O.J. Simpson trial, as he recalled in his 2003 book. He had no idea what was going on, but the receptionist wanted him to shoot an episode of ’48 Hours’ that day because no one else was available. Carlson had a job at ‘CNN’ within a few hours.
Carlson co-hosted the ‘CNN’ discussion program ‘Crossfire’ with Robert Novak in 2001, representing right-wing ideas, while hosts James Carville and Paul Begala represented the left. ‘Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered,’ a weekly public affairs show on ‘PBS,’ was also presented by Carlson.
Carlson’s memoir, ‘Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News,’ was published by Warner Books in 2003.
‘CNN’ announced Carlson’s firing and the discontinuation of his show ‘Crossfire’ in January 2005. It occurred after an altercation with comedian Jon Stewart during his appearance on the show in October 2004. ‘CNN’s decision was motivated by Stewart’s involvement,’ according to ‘The New York Times.’ Despite the fact that channel chief Jonathan Klein shared Carlson’s anti-Stewart beliefs, he had to fire him.
Carlson denied the story of his firing, claiming that he had quit long before Stewart appeared on ‘Crossfire.’
Carlson began hosting the early evening show ‘Tucker’ (‘The Situation with Tucker Carlson’) on ‘MSNBC’ on June 13, 2005. He covered the 2006 Lebanon War in real time. Carlson also hosted a late-afternoon show for the network about the 2006 ‘Winter Olympics,’ as well as a ‘MSNBC’ show called ‘Special Report: Mideast Crisis.’ On the ‘MSNBC’ newscast ‘Verdict with Dan Abrams,’ he was a regular panelist.
Carlson partnered with Elena Grinenko on the third season of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ in 2006. On September 13, the duo was eliminated.
On March 10, 2008, ‘MSNBC’ canceled ‘Tucker’ due to low ratings. Carlson began contributing to ‘Fox News’ in May 2009. He was a regular panelist on ‘Fox’ late-night satire show ‘Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld,’ and he also participated on ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’ in the “All-Star Panel” segment.
When Sean Hannity was gone from his show ‘Hannity,’ he was substituted by him. For ‘Fox News,’ Carlson produced a show called ‘Fighting for Our Children’s Minds.’
Carlson was named a senior fellow at the ‘Cato Institute’ in 2009, but he later left the group and is no longer affiliated with it. On January 11, 2010, he co-founded and served as the first editor-in-chief of the news site ‘The Daily Caller,’ which he co-founded with American political advisor and publisher Neil Patel. Foster Freiss, a conservative activist, funded the site.
Carlson began co-hosting the conservative news talk show ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ with Alisyn Camerota and Clayton Morris in April 2013.
Carlson began anchoring ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ a weekly political discussion show on ‘Fox News,’ on November 14, 2016, replacing the network’s news program ‘On the Record.’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ quickly became the most popular show in that time slot. After replacing Megyn Kelly’s show at 9 p.m., it went on to get the highest ratings for that time slot as well.
After the network dropped ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was relocated to the 8 p.m. position on April 19, 2017. As a result, the show became the highest-rated show in the channel’s history.
In May 2017, literary and creative agency ‘Javelin’ struck a two-book agreement with ‘Threshold Editions’ of the publishing house ‘Simon & Schuster’ on Carlson’s behalf. ‘Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution,’ the first book in the series, was published in October 2018 and was a “New York Times Best Seller.”
Personal & Family Life
Carlson has been married to Susan Andrews, his high school sweetheart, since 1991. Their wedding took place in the chapel of the ‘St. George’s School,’ which they had both attended previously. Lillie (born in 1995), Buckley (born in 1997), Hopie (born in 1999), and Dorothy are their four children.
Carlson is a devout Episcopalian who has been abstinent since 2002.
He disclosed in his memoir that he was unjustly accused of rape by a mentally ill lady he had never met. He had also been stalked by the woman.
Carlson did not vote in the 2004 election to show his opposition to the Iraq war. Abortion and immigration are two issues that he strongly opposes.
Dennis Hof, the owner of a Nevada brothel, is a close friend of his.
Carlson is also a fan of the rock band ‘Grateful Dead,’ and has seen them perform live multiple times.
Carlson and his brother launched a lawsuit in multiple counties in 2012 to obtain his estranged mother’s oil and gas royalties. In October of 2011, she passed away. It was unclear whether Vaughn, her husband, had died or not.
In 2013, Vaughn’s handwritten will was discovered, in which he asserted that Lisa had given her entire estate to him. She had left one dollar for Carlson and his brother, which was unusual.
Carlson’s automobile was destroyed in 2018 by protestors from ‘Smash Racism D.C.,’ who also painted an anarchist sign on his driveway.
Estimated Net Worth
Tucker Carlson’s net worth is $30 million.