Jesse Watters nabs Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. slot at Fox News

Fox News said Monday that it has settled on a successor for Tucker Carlson in the channel’s prized 8 p.m. hour: Jesse Watters, a controversial commentator who has been with the network for two decades.

Watters, a 44-year-old Philadelphia-raised conservative who hosts “Jesse Watters Primetime,” will move back an hour from his current perch as host of Fox News’ 7 p.m. slot, the network said.

He will take the reins of the 8 p.m hour beginning July 17, according to Fox News.

The move comes as part of a reshuffling of Fox News’ programming two months after Carlson was axed by the network in a cable news earthquake.

Laura Ingraham will move into the 7 p.m. slot from her current spot at 10 p.m., and Greg Gutfeld of “The Five” will slide into the 10 p.m. hour, Fox News said. Watters is also part of “The Five,” a 5 p.m. roundtable.

“FOX News Channel has been America’s destination for news and analysis for more than 21 years and we are thrilled to debut a new lineup,” Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News, said in a statement.

“The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come,” she added.

Watters gained notoriety at Fox News with man-on-the-street interviews on Bill O’Reilly’s show “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Watters drew the ire of New Yorkers in 2016 when he toured Manhattan’s Chinatown for a segment in which he asked racially insensitive questions. “Do you know karate?” Watters asked one man in the segment.

He later said he regretted the segment.

Carlson’s final show on the network aired in April.

Fox News announced his ouster six days after reaching a $788 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued over the role Carlson and other network mainstays played in propagating 2020 election misinformation.