Tucker Carlson Net Worth (Money & Salary)

What is Tucker Carlson’s net worth and salary?

An American political commentator, author, and television personality, Tucker Carlson has a net worth estimated at $50 million. From 2000 to 2005, he was a commentator on CNN. Following that, he hosted a show on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008, before joining Fox News in 2009. In 2016, he began his nightly talk show titled “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Tucker was fired from Fox News on April 24, 2023. This incident occurred just one week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, causing a ripple effect throughout the media landscape. Interestingly, Don Lemon was also abruptly let go from CNN on the same day.

Moreover, outside of his television career, Tucker is known as the co-founder of the website The Daily Caller. He is a published author and writes columns as well. On May 9, 2023, he revealed his plans to launch a new show on Twitter, choosing to forgo an estimated $25 million that he would have received from his Fox News contract. More information regarding this and his other contracts will be elaborated in the subsequent section.

Salary & Fox Contract

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

His salary increased from $2 million to $6 million per year when he transitioned from a weekend correspondent to taking over the 8 pm weeknight slot formerly held by Bill O’Reilly. Although this jump appeared significant, O’Reilly had been earning $25 million at that time, and Tucker rapidly began to excel beyond O’Reilly in terms of ratings.

Tucker continued under that contract until February 2021, when he secured a 3-year extension that raised his salary to $10 million. This extension broadened Tucker’s agreement to include a podcast featuring interviews from his show and original monthly content branded as “Tucker Carlson Originals.”

Before his unexpected firing, Tucker had been in discussions for a new contract extension intended to keep him at Fox until 2029.

What occurs next in Tucker’s relationship with Fox?

In the event that Fox aimed to avoid paying him the remaining balance of his contract (projected at $10 million per year for another 2-3 years), they would have needed to validate that Carlson was fired for justifiable reasons. If they could establish this, Fox could have terminated Carlson’s employment without further compensation.

Conversely, Fox might have preferred to retain Tucker to hinder him from joining a competitor during the rest of his contract (2-3 years). Essentially, Tucker could have opted to continue earning $10 million annually under his previous contract, but with restrictions preventing him from appearing on rival networks or news media. Additionally, he would likely have been barred from hosting a podcast, producing specials, or publicly disparaging his former employer.

And on May 9, 2023, the situation became clear!

Tucker chose to exit his Fox contract and pursue an independent route with a new show on Twitter. If he was owed $10 million a year for the approximately 2.5 years left on his Fox deal, he decided to relinquish $25 million in guaranteed income to be released from his previous agreement.

Early Life

Born in San Francisco, Tucker Carlson spent most of his childhood in Southern California. His father, Richard Warner Carlson, served as an LA news anchor and was an ambassador to the Seychelles. His mother departed from the family when he was only six years old. When Tucker turned 10, Richard married Patricia Caroline Swanson, a woman of notable wealth, thanks to her grandfather, Carl A. Swanson, the founder of the Swanson frozen foods business.

Tucker graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he…

A degree in history was obtained in 1991.

Success

Beginning his career as a journalist in print media, he contributed to publications such as Policy Review and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Subsequently, he secured positions as a columnist for various periodicals, including Reader’s Digest and New York Magazine. Furthermore, his work has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines like Esquire, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, and The Daily Beast. Carlson started his television career as a host on the CNN panel discussion program Crossfire, where he typically represented the right-wing perspective.

One of his most significant moments during this time was a heated interview with comedian Jon Stewart, which many analysts suggest directly contributed to the cancellation of Crossfire shortly afterward. Following that, Carlson found opportunities with both of CNN’s major rivals, MSNBC and, most recently, Fox News.

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

In 2017, Tucker assumed the time slot left vacant by Bill O’Reilly after O’Reilly’s termination from Fox News. Within a few years, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became the highest-rated program on Fox News by a considerable margin, attracting an average nightly audience of 3.4 million viewers—more than the combined viewership of his CNN and MSNBC contemporaries.

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

Book Deal

During the time of his rise at Fox News, Tucker secured a lucrative book deal reportedly valued at $15 million, which encompassed several titles. His book “Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News” was published in 2003. In 2018, he released “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution,” followed by “The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism” in 2021.

Daily Caller

In 2010, Tucker and Neil Patel established DailyCaller.com, a right-leaning news and opinion website, positioning it as a conservative alternative to The Huffington Post. In June 2020, he sold his one-third interest to Patel for an undisclosed sum.

Personal Life

Tucker has been married to Susan Andrews since 1991, after they met—and later wed—at the chapel of St. George School, a boarding high school in Middletown, Rhode Island. Together, they have four children, and Carlson is both left-handed and dyslexic.

For nearly ten years, Tucker and his brother Buckley have been involved in a legal dispute regarding the estate of their estranged mother. Lisa Vaughn, their mother, was a beneficiary of an oil and gas partnership that encompassed 70,000 acres in rural central California. Initially, the brothers believed the royalty rights to be worth a modest amount, perhaps $125,000 at most, but they eventually discovered that the rights were valued at a minimum of $2.5 million.

They initiated a lawsuit against their deceased mother’s estate, which specifically allocated each brother only $1. As of this writing, that lawsuit is said to remain unresolved.

Real Estate

The Carlsons divide their time between their residence in Florida and a house situated on his family’s property in Maine. In 2011, Tucker and Susan downsized from a $4 million residence to a $2 million property in Washington D.C.’s Kent neighborhood. They sold that property for $2.04 million in November 2017.

In July 2017, they purchased another house in the same Kent neighborhood for $3.895 million. This home was listed for sale in July 2020 at $3.95 million, representing a slight increase. Within a month, they successfully sold the home at the asking price. Reportedly, their decision to sell came after a group of protestors entered their driveway and rang the doorbell.

In early 2020, Tucker acquired a property on Gasparilla Island in Florida for $2.9 million. By mid-2022, they purchased a second home on Gasparilla for $5.5 million. These two adjacent properties are located within a community known as Boca Grande.