Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Greg Gutfeld had some fun at the expense of former colleague Chris Wallace for leaving the network to join CNN+, which is now defunct just three weeks after its launch due to a lack of subscription sales.
On an episode of “The Five” last week, Carlson and Gutfeld hailed the continued success of the Fox News streaming service Fox Nation and quipped about hiring Wallace to come back to Fox News for that.
“Now that CNN+ is defunct, has Fox Nation considered rehiring Chris Wallace?” Gutfeld said to Carlson.
“We could probably get him at a discount,” Carlson responded sarcastically. “And I’ve seen that he interviews a lot of very interesting people?”
“We had a meeting about him this morning in my office,” Carlson quipped. “I was like ‘No he just failed.”
“One of my producers goes, ‘you know he’s Mike Wallace’s son?’” Carlson said while laughing. “Done! He’s got to be good.”
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According to Wallace in a post-departure interview, he became disenchanted with Fox News after roughly 18 years there because of a three-part series Carlson aired on Fox Nation suggesting that there could have been some federal undercover involvement in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Others have also recently riffed on CNN+’s demise.
“I defy you to find any reasonable person who ever believed that viewers would pay extra money for the dregs of CNN when it was competing for their wallets with Netflix and Disney Plus,” a former CNN producer to Fox News. “Do you want to watch ‘The Mandalorian’ or extra Brian Stelter?”
Another insider did not criticize the content but rather the decision to announce the streaming service after the merger with Discovery was announced.
“I didn’t get this whole thing from day one,” the insider said. “I’m not commenting on the content here. I mean – the basic product itself. I didn’t get why the massive money was spent after a merger had been announced. It was like wheee! AT&T gave us the money, let’s burn it. I don’t understand it.”
“No one involved ever had an answer on that,” the person said. “It was always – Kilar wants it.”
Podcaster Joe Rogan also offered his take on the failure of CNN+.
“They spent $300 million. They got 10,000 subscribers,” Rogan mocked. “Imagine the hubris of thinking that something that people don’t want for free? That you’re going to charge money for it.”
He further quipped: “‘We’re gonna have a Jake Tapper book club.’”
“Jake Tapper seems like a great guy. But I mean, I feel like I don’t have to pay for his book club. I feel like you should put that on Twitter,” he said.
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