Fox News sent workers to dismantle and remove much of Tucker Carlson’s home-based broadcast set in Maine, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday, the latest twist of the knife in a bitter divorce between the former “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host and the cable network.
The studio was built in a converted barn on one of Carlson’s properties, where he taped “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and other shows for Fox News and Fox Nation in the summer. A person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that Fox owns the equipment and installed it at the network’s expense, and rightfully removed it but did not tear down the studio.
In any case, the Daily Mail reported that the studio will have to be completely rebuilt, according to the construction manager.
“Fox came in last week and got all their sh-t out of there,” Patrick Feeney, who said he is managing on-site, told the paper. “They took the set and everything, all the equipment, the chairs, the desk, the fake walls, everything.”
Carlson was just a few weeks from moving to his summer home where the studio is located when he was abruptly fired from the network for reasons that are still not entirely clear, but seem to be a combination of the $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, a separate discrimination lawsuit by one of his former producers and embarrassing text messages and other communications that came to light in discovery or were leaked from an unknown source. Both Fox and Dominion have steadfastly denied a connection between the firing and the settlement.
The newscaster announced earlier this month that he’d be bringing a version of his show to Twitter, but has released no further details and is likely still under a $20 million contract with Fox News that will make launching a new project potentially legally dicey.
The Daily Mail said Tucker retained his own crew to get his studio up and running again, a process that will take some time as infrastructure repairs are now necessary. It reported seeing a three-man construction crew on the property, busily building away.
