Tucker Carlson launched the first episode of his new show on Twitter – Tucker on Twitter. It is 10 minutes of classic Tucker. He lets it rip on the war in Ukraine, Zelensky, Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley, and the press. It was done in monologue form.

Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023

Twitter blew up. By 5:00 P.M. last night, there were 55.6M views. I think the usual suspects are a bit nervous about how huge his audience has the potential to be now that he’s online. The Washington Post called it a “bare bones” show and Brian Stelter snarked that Tucker was operating the teleprompter himself. All they had was petty criticism. In other words, they had nothing other than the standard Tucker-trashing. As WaPo wrote, his 10-minute monologue was “tinged with conspiratorial thinking and drenched with disdain for other media and political figures.”

"Tucker on Twitter" is how @TuckerCarlson's video is branded. Notice his right hand in the wide shot: He's using a TelePrompTer controller to run the prompter himself pic.twitter.com/mzpJ9SFG88

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2023

During his nearly seven years on Fox, Carlson’s show boasted prime-time production values, heavy with guests and graphics. By comparison, his “Tucker on Twitter” show featured the host sitting in front of bare wooden bookshelves and few graphics, aside from an illustration of Carlson fly-fishing. Some broadcast veterans observed that Carlson appeared to be controlling his teleprompter by himself.

Tucker’s disdain of Zelensky and the war in Ukraine is nothing new. He has been consistent from the beginning on the topic. Because he is not swallowing the Biden administration’s narrative on Ukraine and hero-worshipping Zelensky, outlets like WaPo paint him as too supportive of Russia. Putin’s puppet? Give me a break.

Tucker rightfully pointed out that the press in this country pushes the same stories and leaves out others – like the government admitting UFOs exist. A small group controls the news coverage in this country. “Secrecy is a powerful tool of control.”

Carlson picked up some of his usual, conspiracy-theory-tinged topics and sympathies to the Russian government in the video, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “sweaty and rat-like” and suggesting without evidence that Ukraine was responsible for the destruction of a major dam on its territory. He also accused mainstream media outlets of suppressing a claim from a former military officer that the U.S. government has secret knowledge of alien spacecraft.

Tucker expressed his gratitude for the opportunity on Twitter but he made a point of saying that if the promise that there are no gatekeepers on Twitter doesn’t prove to be true, he’s gone. He’ll go elsewhere. He can make that threat because clearly he has proven with this first episode that his audience follows him wherever he goes. All kinds of people can check out his show on Twitter without having to tune into Fox, if they oppose FNC. It is reported that he is still under contract with Fox until 2025.

“As of today, we’ve come to Twitter,” Mr. Carlson said in the video. “We’re told there are no gatekeepers here. If that turns out to be false, we’ll leave.”

Tucker’s dismissal from Fox was surprising because he was the network’s biggest ratings producer. Love him or hate him, he had a huge audience on cable television. Fox decided he was too much of a liability and that’s too bad. It was a business decision, I get that, but it’s too bad FNC didn’t show more courage in supporting their most popular host. It showed a tendency to ignore the audience.

Carlson said he would be back with much more soon. He clearly still has a lot to say. I’ll be watching to see what happens. He is breaking new ground on social media.