There was a brief discussion during 7 a.m. hour of MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning which focused on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and former Fox News (and soon to be NBC News anchor) Megyn Kelly. Joe Scarborough brought up how Willie Geist started his career on Carlson’s MSNBC program in 2005; first off air, then on air as a sort of sidekick.
Scarborough then went out of his way to praise Carlson’s Fox News ratings since taking over the timeslot from Megyn Kelly, his soon-to-be NBC colleague.
Scarborough is right in that Carlson is currently out-performing Kelly at 9 p.m. Here’s how the conversation went:
>Scarborough: So, Willie, few people know but you started out in the back — paid your dues on Tucker Carlson’s show here.
Geist: Yes, I joined MSNBC as a senior producer.
Scarborough: So I’m hearing, and it’s shocking to me his numbers are actually far out pacing anything Megyn Kelly had ever done over there at 9:00 p.m.
Geist: He is doing very — really well. His numbers are up. Tucker is doing well.
Mika Brzezinski: What’s going on over there? How interesting.
Mark Halperin: America is having a love affair with Tucker Carlson.
Brzezinski: He’s very quick and clever.
Scarborough: A lot of people were concerned when Megyn Kelly left that the numbers would go down but Tucker’s numbers are actually going up.
Brzezinski: Might I add that Rachel Maddow is doing really well at 9 o’clock too.
Scarborough: Yes, Rachel’s doing great, but Tucker’s numbers are higher than Megyn’s huh?
Halperin: Apparently he has his finger on the pulse.