Brian Stelter Can't Get Tucker Carlson Off His Mind After Ex-Fox Host Goes Viral on Twitter
Former CNN host Brian Stelter has a bizarre fixation with Tucker Carlson, whose new show debuted on Twitter this week and went beyond viral.
Stelter, who previously hosted “Reliable Sources” on CNN, couldn’t stop talking about Carlson’s inaugural show and the reaction to it online on Tuesday.
In one post on Twitter, he appeared to question whether the video had actually garnered tens of millions of views.
Carlson unveiled “Tucker on Twitter” on Tuesday — just about six weeks after Fox News blindsided fans by canceling his show.
Not everyone is a fan of Carlson, but there is no doubting his influence. In his nearly seven years as the host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” he became cable news’ ratings king and one of the most influential voices on the right.
There is also no denying that Carlson remains in demand as a free agent.
In his initial 10-minute Twitter episode, he called out media bias and government corruption and also touched on a number of controversial topics that he presumably intends to explore in the future in greater detail.
The video racked up just under 100 million views in the 24 hours after it was posted.
Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023
Given that Carlson attracted an audience of just over 3 million viewers nightly during his stint at Fox, the debut of his new show was objectively a success.
But in a series of tweets, Stelter was dismissive.
In one comment posted just three minutes after the first episode of “Tucker on Twitter,” he called the show a “basic 10-minute monologue.”
“As of today,” Tucker says, “we’ve come to Twitter… we’re grateful to be here.” His first video is a basic 10-minute monologue https://t.co/HIwMuGvaKf
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2023
Moments later, Stelter appeared to poke fun at Carlson for launching his new venture without the backing of a major studio or a big production crew.
He wrote, “’Tucker on Twitter’ is how [Carlson’s] video is branded. Notice his right hand in the wide shot: He’s using a TelePrompTer controller to run the prompter himself.”
“Tucker on Twitter” is how @TuckerCarlson‘s video is branded. Notice his right hand in the wide shot: He’s using a TelePrompTer controller to run the prompter himself pic.twitter.com/mzpJ9SFG88
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2023
Still, Stelter wasn’t finished.
Hours after the episode dropped, Stelter took to Twitter again — this time to cast doubt on whether the show was really doing such impressive numbers.
“There are two kinds of people on Twitter: Those who believe the ‘view counts’ especially around alleged video streams, and those who know better,” he said.
There are two kinds of people on Twitter: Those who believe the “view counts” especially around alleged video streams, and those who know better.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 7, 2023
Stelter was widely mocked for his obsessive commentary on Carlson.
Stelter’s upset that Tucker’s first twitter segment got more eyeballs than months worth of “Reliable Sources” https://t.co/NJvfbhkEVN
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) June 7, 2023
There are two kinds of people in this world. Serious people and @brianstelter
— FloridaBuckeye21 (@BuckeyeChi5) June 7, 2023
Your jealousy is showing…
— Danielle (@daniellemerrim1) June 7, 2023
If @TuckerCarlson only got a million views, he still got more than you did on Prime Time cable. https://t.co/rL49wptQS3
— Just Evan™ (@EvanPrinciple) June 7, 2023
“Tucker on Twitter” is by every metric a success after one episode. That much is not in question.
The only failure in this social media saga is Stelter, who was dropped by CNN last August and whose tweets each failed to reach a fraction of the people Carlson’s “basic 10-minute monologue” did.
Stelter’s final tweet on the matter had only reached 210,000 users as of Thursday afternoon, and fewer than 1,000 of them had bothered to interact with the post.
While both Stelter and Carlson were ousted by their previous employers, any comparison between them ends there. Carlson has had countless fans and haters alike eagerly awaiting his next move.
Stelter certainly can’t stop talking about him.
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