Francis Ellis, a star of Barstool Sports, has made several appearances on Fox News, most notably on Jesse Watters’ show at 7 p.m. But on what appeared to be a hot mic, Ellis revealed his true feelings about the most popular cable news network, calling the show’s top hosts hateful.
Fox News Guest Francis Ellis Caught on Barstool Bashing Network (mediaite.com)
An editing error in a Barstool Rundown episode that aired on Tuesday caught Ellis criticizing the network for “just trafficking in hate.” The raw audio, which was posted online before being swiftly taken down by Barstool, was obtained by Mediaite.
After the program signed off, co-host Adam Ferrone, also known as Rone, questioned Ellis about his most recent appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime on a Monday night. Ellis said it was okay. He said Watters requested that he discuss Massachusetts Democrats’ desire to lower the voting age to 16.
He said he made a To Catch a Predator joke and a QAnon reference but admitted he “just couldn’t get his feet under himself.” Watters began his career at Fox by conducting man-on-the-street interviews for Bill O’Reilly, the co-hosts noted.
Ferrone questioned, “What if they offer you a similar ascent?” Ellis responded, “They have asked me to do man on the street for them, and I had to say no,” “They wanted me to take like this subway bingo card down into the subway and be like—ask random strangers, ‘Have you seen a rat, fill out your bingo card thing?’ And it was like so stupid,” he said. But what if they said, “Francis, we want you to do the eight to nine o’clock hour!” instead of just offering you a segment? Ferrone enquired.
“Well, yeah, I suppose that would be—I’d definitely need to speak with Dave [Portnoy]. Like, ‘Hey, I’ve been offered a full-time position at Fox News,'” Ellis recalled.
Ellis continued by saying that he was “disappointed” in himself after his final appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime. He said he expressed his disappointment to his wife, and she replied, “Let’s be honest, like, do you want to be working with these f*cking people?” She said, “I watched the rest of his show; he’s a f*cking joke.” Ferrone made light of the hot mic exchange, trying to alert him that they were still on the air. “This is still part of the Rundown,” Rone said.
From the audio engineer booth, someone else chimed in, “Still rolling, baby.” Unfazed, Ellis continued to disparage Fox. Then, he continued, “Tucker, like, comes on and just screams.” It’s so strange, Ellis continued, “They’re just trafficking in hate.” Those Fox job offers are likely dead in the water after this misstep.
