Tucker introduces season two of "Tucker Carlson Originals'
Senior executive producer Justin Wells discusses Tucker Carlson's series on 'Tucker Carlson Originals.'
TUCKER CARLSON: Welcome to season two of "Tucker Carlson Originals." About a year and a half ago, a group of producers and I sat down at dinner and talked about how to go a little deeper into some of the topics we cover on the nighttime show. Wouldn't it be interesting to spend more than three and a half minutes on a subject that matters to our viewers? Wouldn't it be cool to make documentaries?
CARLSON: The only problem is cable news companies don't make documentaries. They make cable news and they do a pretty good job, we think. But we went to Fox News and asked, "Could we do this?" To our amazement and delight, they said, "Yes, you can." And so for the last year, we have made a series of long-form documentaries about issues that we think matter to the country and to you and they've worked better than we ever expected.
CARLSON: We're proud of what we've created. So we're doing another season and for a preview of that, we are joined by the diabolical genius behind the curtain — the man behind all this — our senior executive producer Justin Wells, who is a vice president here at Fox News. Justin Wells, good to see you on camera for the first time in a long time — since last year. So, this has become something that we, I think it's fair to say, did not expect it to become at all.
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Tucker Carlson speaks during the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) Feszt on August 7, 2021 in Esztergom, Hungary. ( Janos Kummer/Getty Images)
JUSTIN WELLS: We knew we wanted to do it and we knew FOX was supporting us and going out there telling stories that no one's telling. We went to at least 30 states. We went to several countries and we got a lot of support from the audience because they were not able to consume this anywhere else and we, you know, rattled a few people in the mainstream media or whatnot, obviously, because, you know, perhaps some of the stories are controversial, but they're topics that people care about deeply and you actually need to spend time dissecting them and understanding them and that's what we do in these documentaries. They're shot beautifully. You know, we've got the best team as far as that, but the team that does the nightly show knows what stories matter to people. They're part of this and that's why I think it worked.
CARLSON: And you hate to suck up to your employer. I see people all the time sucking up to their employers. They work for these horrible, big companies, force them to read the propaganda and they do. I resent all of that. But I have to say Fox News has gone all in, in support of this. Some of the stuff that we've produced has not been popular with, like NBC and CNN and you would know since you deal with it, but FOX has stood behind us completely.
WELLS: One hundred percent and there hasn't been a single time where they've told us, "Talk about this, don't talk about that" or "go and cover that story or don't cover that story." We say, "This is what we're doing this season. We decided to go to Hungary and we're going to really investigate how they took a different approach to George Soros and dive into that and see how maybe we could learn something here in America." And we did that on our own and, you know, they've given us the resources to go.
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CARLSON: Yeah, they have.
WELLS: And you know, the New York Times didn't love that we were there for a week investigating how they take a different approach to their country. We somehow ended up in Serbia by accident on that trip. You know, new surprises along the way. But, you know, I think that's what makes the series different. I think that's why it's resonated with people. That's why we're able to go out for season two, cover even more topics that are equally going to be as insightful as what we did in the first season, but nobody's talked about some of these. Nobody's talked about testosterone levels or...
CARLSON: No and pushed the boundaries a little bit. It's a little weird to wake up at 52 and realize you work for the last stronghold of free speech in all mass media. I did not expect that when I started working here 13 years ago. I don't think you did either, but that's really where we work—the last place where you can say what you think is true and your bosses will back you up. So, why is this season better?
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WELLS: Well, I think the season's better. First of all, it's on Fox Nation and you know, if we were doing this on YouTube or some other outlet or whatever, they'd be banning it. We wouldn't be able to view it.
CARLSON: Ya think?
WELLS: Fox Nation, you go there, you can sign up and you're going to get everything from testosterone levels, which you're going to hear later in the hour. Last season, we covered UFOs and that phenomenon and, you know, we dived into cattle mutilations a little bit, but this season we really are investigating that fine tune, you know, approach to what's actually happening.
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CARLSON: Well, yeah, because it's the perfect story for this series, because it's one of those things that you hear about and you think, "Well, that can't be. That's too crazy to be real." You ask questions about it - "shut up, conspiracy monger" - and then you get a little deeper into it and you ask, like, "What the hell is this?" And I think that we did that.
WELLS: We did. And there's some guys that are going to be on later this hour that are going to demonstrate why what we're looking is, it can't be, you know, humans just going there and like people do not, you know, take cows and mutilate them randomly on farms there.
CARLSON: No, at scale.
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WELLS: Massive scale. Yeah.
CARLSON: So, Justin Wells, I'm going to wreck your life by saying this, but this is the man behind all these different products, so we thought you should say "hi" to him. Again, thank you for that.
WELLS: Thank you.
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