Fired by Fox, Carlson Gets Skewered on Late Night

As Fox employees absorbed the news Monday of Tucker Carlson's ouster, late-night TV used the development as fodder for its own purposes. Show hosts dug into Carlson's seeming support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, takes on Jan. 6, disgust over a recent M&Ms makeover, anti-LGBTQ views, and his now-former primetime program, once described by the New York Times as perhaps the "most racist show in the history of cable news." The New York Times and Hollywood Reporter round up some of Monday night's nuggets:

• Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live!: "They say Rupert Murdoch made this decision, so this is more like an episode of Succession than last night's episode of Succession."
• Desi Lydic, The Daily Show: "We still don't know exactly what led Rupert Murdoch to fire his network's biggest star, but reportedly, he was concerned over Carlson's conspiracy theories about Jan. 6. So let this be a lesson to everybody: If you try to topple America's democracy, you can stay on TV for two more years, and that's it!"
• Lydic: "Apparently, Tucker was forced out by Rupert Murdoch, which is pretty ironic. Tucker spent so many years saying that Mexican people were coming to take our jobs away. Turns out, he should have been worrying about Australians."
• Jimmy Fallon, Tonight Show: "Yep, Tucker Carlson is out. When he heard, Vladimir Putin was like, 'Damn, we need a new PR guy!'"
• Seth Meyers, Late Night: "Who else is gonna tell us when M&Ms are [expletive] anymore, you know? You know what would be really funny, though? If they replaced him at 8pm with the new green M&M."
• James Corden, Late Late Show: "Tucker Carlson has now worked [at] and left MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. He's running out of options now. Like, soon he's just going to be on the Weather Channel, saying that hurricanes are caused by drag queens."

Don Lemon, who was also fired on Monday, from his own CNN network, also had some late-night attention thrown his way.

• Lydic: "CNN just fired Don Lemon after 17 New Year's Eve blackouts—sorry, years of service."
• Kimmel: "Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson—for those of you who don't follow cable news, this is like if Ronald McDonald and the Burger King got fired on the same day."

(More Tucker Carlson stories.)