Show featuring Tucker Carlson launches on Russian state television

A new program featuring former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is airing on Russian state television, but the head of his network said he had nothing to do with it.

Tucker Carlson Network CEO Neil Patel said on Tuesday the conservative host was not involved with the newly launched Russian show, which appears to rely on repurposed content Carlson records for his online audience in the U.S., according to the Daily Beast.

“The Tucker Carlson Network has not done any deals with state media in any country,” Patel said on X.

Carlson told the Financial Times he knew nothing about a Russian program bearing his name when Russia 24 started advertising the show in the fall.

The first episode of “Tucker. Rossiya 24,” appears to have began on station Russia 24 in recent days, according to Newsweek. Several archived shows that have been dubbed in Russian can be streamed online.

Carlson’s Russian program isn’t believed to feature original content produced by the 55-year-old commentator, who began posting interviews on social media after Fox News cut him loose in April 2023. Monday’s program, titled “Ticks — Nuclear Weapons for the Poor,” included footage Carlson posted online on May 10.

Russian media often praises Carlson for spreading information that benefits the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin while besmirching Russian adversaries, including the U.S. He was blasted by mainstream journalists in February for interviewing the Russian president, whose government imprisons reporters and has been credibly accused of ordering the death of his political rivals.

Once a prime-time ratings magnet, Carlson was let go by Fox News when the network settled a record-breaking $788 million defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, which the outlet was accused of falsely disparaging. Racist and sexist text messages discovered during that suit revealed Carlson was aware the right-wing cable channel was spreading bad information about the 2020 presidential election.

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