Lawrence Jones, who made history as the youngest black solo host of a program in cable news, is stepping in to host ousted Tucker Carlson’s slot on Fox News next week.
Jones, 30, who anchors “Lawrence Jones Cross Country” on Fox News on Saturday nights, will host in Carlson’s former 8 p.m. slot from Monday as the network continues with a rotating line-up of anchors.
Garland, Texas native Jones joined the network in December 2018, and was named the host weekend primetime program, “Lawrence Jones Cross Country” in January 2022.
A media insider told us, “Fox News is trying out a rotating list of anchors in Tucker’s spot — this week it has been ‘Fox & Friends” Brian Kilmeade — but it is significant that they have chosen Jones to step up so soon after Tucker’s departure.”
Jones — who pulls in 1 million viewers and 108,000 in the demo in his 10 p.m. Saturday slot — lives in Dallas, but is in New York on Friday and Saturdays for his show.
He works much of the week as an enterprise reporter for “Fox & Friends,” where he is the program’s national correspondent.
Jones, who worked on the Obama campaign when he was 15, reported live from Uvalde, Texas, after the mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults, and has also covered the death of Tyre Nichols, the Idaho murders, nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd and the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on minority communities across the country.
He recently told The Dallas Morning News, “I never thought I would be doing this job. I think my classmates will tell you and my parents would say that I always had an opinion. I was always advocating for someone involved with politics in some form or fashion.”
Jones also told the newspaper it was Sean Hannity who first offered him a correspondent role on Fox.
“I told him no, I didn’t think it was a good idea, ‘Because I’m a libertarian, and we’re going to disagree a lot,’” Jones said. “And he said, ‘Oh, that’s OK. Just be you.’ And I said, ‘No, we’re really going to disagree.’ He goes, ‘Just give it a shot.’ And that turned from two months, into a year. And he said, ‘Listen, LJ, if you just be you, you’ll have your own show.’”
He added, “I may have a godparent of every single race. And so, people often ask me: How am I able to report on a story in the south side of Chicago and then go to Iowa to do a diner for ‘Fox & Friends’? And it’s because I grew up around all these different types of people. It has allowed me to really go within any different crowd and understand their grievances and understand the things that matter to them the most.”