‘Not a chance’: Fox News viewers reject Tucker Carlson’s replacement

There were a lot of questions floating around after Fox News unceremoniously dumped rightwing firebrand Tucker Carlson on Monday morning.

Among them: can the conservative news channel effectively replace its most popular host, a grievance-filled firebrand who drew in more than 3 million viewers every night?

The answer, on this week's evidence, is no.

Every night this week it has filled Carlson's slot with Brian Kilmeade, an eager substitute who, in his regular role on the Fox and Friends morning show, serves as an excitable, unthreatening everyman.

Every night viewers have given an unforgiving verdict on Kilmeade's efforts: by turning off in their droves.

It's a shame for Kilmeade, but a clue as to how he might be received had already come early on Monday.

"Join me tonight at 8 pm!" he tweeted an hour before his show started a now Tucker-free Fox News line-up. It turned out that not only did people not want to join Kilmeade, they were furious that he was going to be on air in place of their fallen hero.