Names and faces
Veteran commentator Tucker Carlson will fill the Fox News Channel anchor chair being vacated by Megyn Kelly, who is heading to NBC. The network announced Thursday that Carlson will take over the 9 p.m. Eastern slot after Kelly does her final edition of The Kelly File today. The move means Fox is solidifying its block of politically right- leaning commentary programs in prime time, as Carlson will fill the hour between Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Kelly’s program, while not completely without opinion, had been more news- driven. Carlson, 47, who was an Arkansas Democrat- Gazette editorial writer in the early 1990s, is a personal favorite of 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who has been running Fox News since longtime Chairman Roger Ailes departed in July. Murdoch chose Carlson to replace longtime anchor Greta Van Susteren in the 7 p.m Eastern hour after she left the network over contract issues. Carlson was an immediate ratings success after taking over the hour. In December, he averaged 2.87 million viewers in the hour, making him the secondmostwatched personality on Fox News after O’Reilly. He improved the ratings in the hour by 23 percent. Carlson’s program will be based in Washington. The network also said that Martha MacCallum will move into Carlson’ s 7 p.m. times lot— at least temporarily. She will host a show called The First 100 Days to coincide with the beginning of the Trump administration.
Letters sent by Britain’s late Princess Diana — including one in which she described a young Prince Harry as being “constantly in trouble” while at boarding school — sold for thousands of dollars at an auction Thursday. Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The six handwritten notes were sent to Cyril Dickman, a former head steward at Buckingham Palace, during the 1980s and 1990s. In one, sent five days after Harry’s birth in September 1984, Diana thanked Dickman for a card he sent during what she called “this particularly happy time” and described how affectionate Prince William was toward his baby brother. “William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!” she wrote. That note, which had been expected to fetch up to $ 745, sold for $ 3,975, Cheffins auction house in Cambridge said.