Tucker Carlson Net Worth (Money & Salary)

What is Tucker Carlson’s net worth and salary?

An American political commentator, author, and TV personality, Tucker Carlson boasts a net worth of $50 million. He served as a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005 and hosted a show on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. In 2009, he began his tenure at Fox News, where he launched his nightly talk show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” in 2016.

On April 24, 2023, Tucker was dismissed from Fox News. This shocking development occurred just a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit by paying $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, sending ripples through the media landscape. Interestingly, on the very same day, Don Lemon was also fired from CNN.

In addition to his television career, Tucker is a co-founder of The Daily Caller and has made his mark as a columnist and published author. On May 9, 2023, he revealed plans to launch a new show on Twitter, choosing to forgo an estimated $25 million owed under his Fox News contract. More information regarding this and Tucker’s other contracts can be found in the next section.

Salary & Fox Contract

At the time of his termination, Tucker Carlson’s peak salary at Fox was $10 million annually.

Transitioning from a weekend correspondent to the prime-time 8 pm slot vacated by Bill O’Reilly, his salary rose from $2 million to $6 million per year. Although this appeared to be a substantial increase, O’Reilly had been earning $25 million, and Tucker quickly surpassed O’Reilly in terms of ratings.

His contract lasted until February 2021, when he secured a three-year extension, elevating his salary to $10 million. This extension also included a podcast featuring interviews from his show and original monthly segments called “Tucker Carlson Originals.”

Prior to his abrupt firing, Tucker had been in negotiations for a new contract extension, which would have kept him at Fox until 2029.

What lies ahead for Tucker and Fox?

To avoid having to pay out the remainder of his contract ($10 million annually for another 2-3 years), Fox would need to establish that Carlson was let go for cause. If they succeeded in proving that, they could release Carlson without any further payments.

Alternatively, Fox may have preferred to keep Tucker under contract to prevent him from joining a competing network during the remaining term (2-3 years). In this scenario, Tucker could have continued earning $10 million yearly under his previous contract but would be prohibited from appearing on rival networks or news outlets. He likely would also have faced restrictions on hosting a podcast, producing specials, or openly criticizing his former employer.

Then came May 9, 2023, and the answer was revealed!

Tucker decided to exit his Fox contract and pursue an independent path with a new show on Twitter. By doing so, he effectively relinquished $25 million in guaranteed earnings, which he would have earned over the remaining 2.5 years of his Fox contract.

Early Life

Born in San Francisco, Tucker mainly grew up in Southern California. His father, Richard Warner Carlson, was a news anchor in LA and later an ambassador to the Seychelles. Tucker’s mother left the family when he was six. At the age of 10, Richard married Patricia Caroline Swanson, who came from significant wealth due to her grandfather, Carl A. Swanson, the founder of the Swanson frozen foods business.

He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he completed his education with a degree in…

A degree in history was obtained in 1991.

Success

Beginning his career as a journalist in print, he contributed to various publications, including Policy Review and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This experience led him to become a columnist for magazines like Reader’s Digest and New York Magazine. Additionally, his work has featured in esteemed newspapers and magazines such as Esquire, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, and The Daily Beast. Carlson’s television career commenced as a host on the CNN panel discussion program Crossfire, where he typically represented the right-wing perspective.

Among his notable moments during this time was a heated interview with comedian Jon Stewart, which many analysts argue directly resulted in Crossfire’s cancellation shortly thereafter. Following this, Carlson secured positions with CNN’s main competitors, MSNBC, and more recently, Fox News.

For many years, Carlson was recognized not only for his occasionally unconventional conservative views but also for his signature bow tie, often referred to as “the Tucker Carlson look.”

In 2017, Tucker took over the time slot left vacant by Bill O’Reilly’s departure from Fox News. Within a few years, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became the highest-rated show on Fox News by a significant margin, attracting an average nightly viewership of 3.4 million, surpassing the combined audiences of his CNN and MSNBC counterparts.

On April 24, 2023, Tucker shocked the media landscape by declaring his immediate departure from Fox News, revealing that his last broadcast had occurred the previous Friday, April 21.

Book Deal

During the period of his rise at Fox News, Tucker entered into a lucrative book deal, reported to be worth $15 million, involving several books. Carlson’s debut book, “Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News,” was released in 2003. He followed this with “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution” in 2018, and in 2021 published “The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism.”

Daily Caller

Tucker co-founded DailyCaller.com in 2010 alongside Neil Patel, establishing a right-wing news and opinion platform designed as a conservative alternative to The Huffington Post. In June 2020, Tucker sold his one-third ownership stake to Patel for an undisclosed sum.

Personal Life

Since 1991, Tucker has been married to Susan Andrews. Their relationship began at St. George School’s chapel, a boarding high school in Middletown, Rhode Island, where they later tied the knot. They are parents to four children. Carlson is left-handed and has dyslexia.

For nearly ten years, Tucker and his brother Buckley have been involved in a lawsuit concerning their estranged mother’s estate. Their mother, Lisa Vaughn, was a beneficiary of an oil and gas partnership that spanned a total of 70,000 acres in rural central California. Initially, the brothers believed the royalty rights were valued at a relatively low amount, possibly $125,000 at most. Ultimately, they discovered the rights were worth at least $2.5 million.

The estate of their late mother was the subject of a lawsuit filed by them, which specifically allocated each brother a nominal amount of $1. As of this writing, that lawsuit remains unresolved.

Real Estate

Between their home in Florida and a residence situated on his family’s property in Maine, the Carlsons divide their time. In 2011, they opted to downsize from a $4 million residence to one valued at $2 million within the Kent neighborhood of Washington D.C. This house was sold for $2.04 million in November 2017.

They made another purchase in July 2017, acquiring a new property in Kent for $3.895 million. In July 2020, they listed this home at $3.95 million, marking a slight increase in price. Within a month, the home sold at the asking price. Reportedly, the decision to sell stemmed from an incident where a group of protestors approached their driveway and even rang their doorbell.

In early 2020, Tucker purchased a residence on Gasparilla Island, Florida, for $2.9 million. By mid-2022, they acquired a second property on Gasparilla for $5.5 million. These homes, located adjacent to one another, are part of a community called Boca Grande.