Every weeknight America’s most powerful politicians would wait with bated breath. 

At 8pm Washington DC time, Tucker Carlson, America’s most popular, and powerful, news show host, would turn his fire on anyone he deemed too woke, globalist or unpatriotic. 

Such worries ended on Monday morning, when Mr Carlson unceremoniously parted ways with Fox News in circumstances ripe for rumour and speculation. 

“Americans who are dissatisfied with the status quo have, for the moment, lost their most articulate and formidable voice,” Pedro Gonzalez, a conservative commentator who was a regular guest on Mr Carlson’s show, told The Telegraph. 

“Tucker wasn’t just speaking for the Right, and that’s why he was so successful and effective; Tucker spoke for everyone who knows there’s something wrong with the established political order and its consensus on immigration, war, and the economy.”

Fox News’s daily hour-long programme, Tucker Carlson Tonight, pulled in an average audience of 3.3 million viewers in its final two months, making it by far the most viewed cable news show in America. 

When the news was announced the show would be ending, Fox Corporation’s stock slumped by 3 per cent on Monday, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in value. 

Whilst the show was a phenomenon among conservative viewers, data also suggests Mr Carlson was popular with Democrats. 

A survey conducted by Nielsen MRI Fusion in October 2021 showed that among the 25-54 age group, 39 per cent of self-described Democrats tuned into the Fox News show, whilst the liberal networks CNN and MSNBC took in 30 per cent and 31 per cent respectively of the rest of the demographic. 

Boris Johnson, a victim of Mr Carlson’s ire for his views on Ukraine and Covid lockdowns, recently said of the former Fox host: “I’ve been amazed and horrified by how many people are frightened of a guy called Tucker Carlson… What is it with this guy?”

“All these wonderful Republicans seem somehow intimidated by his perspective.” 

Mr Carlson was found to be the most influential non-politician voice among Republican Congressional staffers according to one 2021 study by Punchbowl News. 

A video put out on Wednesday evening by Mr Carlson implicitly criticising his former employer has so far racked up over twenty million views on Twitter alone. 

Staring down the lens in his old wood-panelled studio, the commentator calmly spoke as if he was doing another show: “The undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all: War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources.”

“When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time.”

“Debates like that are not permitted in American media.”

Mr Carlson’s eloquent opening monologues, which could last for up to half an hour, would shower praise or scorn on America’s political and cultural elite with brutal sarcasm, creepy laughter and up beat tones. 

Mr Carlson’s conservatism is not wedded to the Republican Party; He is populist, anti-establishment and believes in putting America first. 

“The defining strategic insight of the modern Democratic Party is that you don’t really need to convince anyone of anything,” Mr Carlson said in his last show for the network on Friday, in a not untypical statement from the polemicist. 

“What matters is demographics, you need to import enough people from elsewhere, people who are financially dependent on you to live,” he continued. 

It’s not just the Democrats who are singled out by Mr Carlson; Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who served as US Ambassador to the UN, has been on the receiving end of his compelling rants frequently. 

“She may be running to be the Republican nominee, but she is fundamentally indistinguishable from the neo liberal donor base of the Democratic Party,” Mr Carlson said on his show in February. 

“She believes identity politics is our future. ‘Vote for me because I’m a woman,’ she says. That’s her pitch.”

In contrast, two populist-leaning Republicans, Larry Elder and Vivek Ramaswamy, have launched their presidential campaigns on Mr Carlson’s show. 

Meanwhile, both former President Trump and his main unofficial rival, Ron DeSantis, have both given interviews to Mr Carlson in recent months. 

The former President has mourned Mr Carlson’s departure from Fox, telling a rival broadcaster: "I'm shocked. I’m surprised. He’s a very good person and [a] very good man and very talented."

Mr DeSantis has conspicuously not commented on the news whilst he continues his world tour, which will end in Britain on Friday. 

With Mr Carlson now being substituted by a revolving set of Fox News hosts until a permanent replacement can be found, Mrs Haley and other Republicans on the left of the party will have some breathing space from the right-wing firebrand. 

Those on the right who received significant exposure from speaking on Mr Carlson’s programme will lose out, including the two Republican frontrunners. 

On the left, the reaction to his exit was gleeful and riven with schadenfreude. 

The hosts of the liberal talk show The View announced the news to jeers and cheers from their audience, before doing a celebratory Mexican wave. 

The New York congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, simply tweeted “Wow”; Last weekend she told MSNBC Mr Carlson had incited violence and implied the government should rein him in, saying: “When it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t.”

What made Mr Carlson stand out from his fellow Fox News hosts was his independence of voice. 

Not only was he not beholden to the Republican Party’s establishment, who were frequently attacked for their hawkish foreign policy and lax views on immigration, he was no mere mouthpiece for President Trump. 

As a part of a lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems over false accusations that the company was involved in election fraud, text messages were revealed from Mr Carlson criticising the former president. 

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” one read. 

Mr Carlson says those messages were sent in the heat of the moment during the chaotic period after the 2020 election. 

Earlier this month Fox Corporation settled a lawsuit with Dominion for $787.5 million, with some linking the case to Mr Carlson’s firing. 

However, it is still unclear why Mr Carlson was let go by Fox News, with US media outlets going into speculation overdrive since Monday. 

Theories range from Rupert Murdoch personally making the decision because of his discomfort with Mr Carlson’s strong Christian views, to the falling out being over a lawsuit brought by a former producer on Mr Carlson’s show alleging a toxic work environment. 

In the days before being let go, Mr Carlson made a speech to a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, urging his audience to pray for ten minutes every day, saying: “None of this makes sense in conventional political terms.”

“When people, or crowds of people, or the largest crowd of people at all, which is the federal government, the largest human organisation in human history decide that the goal is to destroy things, destruction for its own sake, ‘Hey, let’s tear it down,’ what you’re watching is not a political movement. It’s evil.”

By letting go of its most outspoken, and arguably conservative, presenter, Fox risks alienating its core audience. 

On Monday Mr Carlson’s slot was filled by Brian Kilmeade, a regular Fox News host.

In his show, Mr Kilmeade criticised President Biden’s 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, warning the move has led to a rise of terrorism in the Middle East. 

This drew attacks from some online; Jordan Perkins, a conservative academic, tweeted in response to Mr Kilmeade’s segment: “Tucker’s gone: time to push war in the Middle East again”.

On Monday, Mr Kilmeade’s show drew in 2.6 million viewers, about 20 per cent fewer than Mr Carlson’s average audience. 

The following night saw another drop to 1.7 million viewers, representing just over half of Mr Carlson’s previous audience. 

Mr Kilmeade is not the only Fox News presenter who has drawn fire from conservative pundits. 

In April, trans celebrity Caitlyn Jenner joined the network as an official contributor. 

Pedro Gonzalez, the conservative pundit, said of Jenner: "Fox has been drifting leftward for years, essentially reframing the radicalism of yesterday as the conservatism of today. The network hiring Bruce Jenner is a case in point.”

“Fox is trying to convince conservatives that there is a “moderate” position on an issue that not long ago would have been considered more of a psychiatric issue requiring medical care—not a mainstream category of political identity with a lobby behind it.”

The question on many Americans' lips is, what will Tucker Carlson do next? 

"If I were CNN, and was truly committed to shaking things up, I would hire Tucker Carlson,” Curt Mills, contributing editor of The American Conservative told this newspaper. 

"He could rival Joe Rogan in a fun way— Carlson is a natural journalist and interviewer, first and foremost. But it’s no coincidence there’s a groundswell for him to eventually run for president,” he continued. 

Speculation over a potential presidential run has followed Mr Carlson for some years, though he has always denied having such ambitions. 

However, Mr Carlson left no doubt that he would be back in some way or another. 

In his response video on Wednesday, he signed off by asking: “Where can you still find Americans saying true things?”

“There aren’t many places left, but there are some, and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words there is hope.”

“See you soon.”