An MSNBC tipster tells Big Head DC that David Gregory and executive producer Noah Oppenheim got “spanked hard” last week due to falling ratings for the duo’s Race for the White House. We’ve even heard buzz of a screaming match between top honcho Phil Griffin and Gregory. Such displays of temper were far less common under Tucker Carlson — the guy Gregory replaced, but has had difficulty in out-pacing, ratings-wise, at least.

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Big Head DC interviewed Tucker Carlson on the eve of his last MSNBC show, a retrospective which airs tonight at 6 p.m. ET. Declining to talk much smack about his soon-to-be former employer (he’ll show up for a while as a commenter on various network shows), the conservative talker seemed, in the spirit of Eliot Spitzer, perhaps, to be quite ebullient about his future: 

Big Head DC: How do you feel about the end of the show?

Tucker Carlson: Weirdly, I feel great and have all week. Not sure why.

BHDC: Any hard feelings toward MSNBC?

TC: Can’t complain about MSNBC.  I wish they weren’t killing the show - I like it and think it’s good - but other than that, they’ve been nice to me.  

BHDC: Do you see yourself headlining another political show soon? 

TC: I’m confident I’ll wind up doing something interesting.

BHDC: But nothing set in stone yet?

TC: I’m in good shape.

BHDC: Thanks, Tucker, and best of luck.

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So, conservative talker Tucker Carlson has been fired from his 6 p.m. MSNBC show, Tucker. Instead of trying to find a new host with the same name, we hear the network is leaning heavily toward Rachel Maddow, the liberal lesbian who Keith Olbermann desperately wants made into a nationwide star. Maddow has long been a provocative radio gab girl and has had some major success as a guest during MSNBC political panels — chiefly, telling Chris Matthews to his big, yellow face that he’s a sexist. Upon which, his leg got this sort of funny feeling running all up and down. And then he had a stiff drink (allegedly!).

P.S. Now we know why Carlson was so mad at the media on Friday.

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Conservative MSNBC host Tucker Carlson belittled foreign reporter Gerri Peev in an interview with her today on his show for - get this - not asking Sen. Barack Obama’s former foreign policy adviser Samantha Power exactly what Power meant when she called Sen. Hillary Clinton a “monster.” Peev, a correspondent for The Scotsman, indicated that the statement was pretty much self explanatory. Whatever explanation Carlson was looking for, we’ll leave for you to decipher.

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First MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews suggested Sen. Hillary Clinton only won her Senate seat because people felt sorry for her after Bill’s Clinton’s affair, and now MSNBC political reporter David Shuster has tastelessly compared Chelsea Clinton to a lady of the night.

Filling in for Tucker Carlson yesterday, Shuster gave his opinion on Chelsea’s role in the presidential campaign, asking a guest, “Doesn’t it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?”

Immediately after the comment, Big Head DC has learned, people in the Clinton camp were angered — and the network began receiving angry e-mails and calls from viewers suggesting it was an inappropriate way for a reporter to refer to a former First Daughter.

Amazingly, Shuster chose not to apologize, even when the Clinton camp expressed their outrage directly to him — until MSNBC bigwigs forced him to do so, in a segment planned to air tonight at 6 p.m. ET. 

“The comment was completely inappropriate, and we have called the Clinton campaign to apologize,” a network spokesperson told Howie Kurtz today. Meanwhile, Phil Griffin, the executive in charge of MSNBC, phoned the Clinton camp to say the comment was “clearly wrong.” 

“At some point you have to question whether there is a pattern at this particular network,” a top Clinton staffer is quoted on a Post blog as saying. Murmurs are reaching Big Head DC that future MSNBC appearances by Hillary Clinton and her husband will likely be few and far between. 

Earlier: Advice for Removing David Shuster’s Alleged Back Hair

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For some reason, Tucker Carlson couldn’t make the start of his 6:00 p.m. ET MSNBC program today, which left honchos at the network scrambling. Broadcasting from New Hampshire, the host made it to air by 6:05. Extended commercials were shown during his absence.

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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we got several comments and e-mails pointing us to a new Web site called Save Tucker in response to our postings regarding the possibility that the MSNBC’s sole conservative show may soon be canceled. The site, created by Tucker fans John Bertran and Alain Jean is promoted as such: Read more…

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Big Head DC has just received word from Tucker Carlson himself that rumors floating around the blogosphere today (which were stirred up by an unnamed NBC exec in the NY Times yesterday) are false — MSNBC has not canceled his program behind his back. “We’re on the air as far as I know,” Carlson tells us. “I’m heading to the studio right now in fact.”

Could MSNBC have made a decision to drop him without telling him first? Or is it a possibility that someone within MSNBC who doesn’t like Carlson floated the inaccurate rumors, as we’ve heard from our own NBC sources? When we contacted Carlson about the alleged cancellation mentioned by the NBC exec yesterday, he seemed to confirm the latter line of thought, saying, “TV’s a dangerous business.”

Earlier: “Thanks to All Eight of You for Watching”

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Last week Tucker Carlson was talking about all “eight of his viewers“; this week the NY Times is noting that the conservative talker faces impending doom:

The one early-evening program on MSNBC that is often most sympathetic to the administration, “Tucker” with Tucker Carlson at 6 p.m., is in real danger of being canceled, said one NBC executive…

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So said a frustrated Tucker Carlson at the close of his program tonight. Could this be a hint from the conservative talker than his show may soon be canceled? Are MSNBC honchos getting on him for his low ratings?

Stay tuned…

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