(Reuters) -Fox News said on Monday it had named Jesse Watters as the new host of its 8 p.m. ET show from July 17, replacing top-rated host Tucker Carlson.
Fox News Media and Carlson agreed to part ways in April, less than a week after parent company Fox Corp settled for $787.5 million defamation lawsuit, in which the anchor played a starring role.
Watters will host his opinion program “Jesse Watters Primetime” on the 8.p.m. slot, originally launched last year as a 7 p.m. show, Fox News said.
It added that the show had over 2.6 million viewers so far this year, of which 270,000 were from the 25-54 age group.
Carlson’s talk show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” was the highest-rated cable news program in the same demographic on the most-watched U.S. cable news network.
Laura Ingraham will move to a show earlier in the evening at 7 p.m. and late-night host Greg Gutfeld will move up an hour to 10 p.m., Fox News said.
Meanwhile, Sean Hannity will remain at the 9 p.m. show, the media organization said.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
