Fox News has been in this situation several times before: A top-rated, personality-driven, lightning rod of a host with a fiercely loyal audience goes down in flames, only to see a new, even more powerful personality rise from the ashes.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” may be gone from the network’s juggernaut 8 p.m. hour, after Fox abruptly pulled the plug Monday morning. But if history is any guide, someone will soon take up that billowing, red, right-wing primetime flag — and at this point, it almost doesn’t matter who that person turns out to be.
Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, Greta Van Susteren and even Roger Ailes — each left at the height of their powers, and each was successfully backfilled from the Fox News bench.