As the Jan 6. hearing aired, Fox News ran an ad-free Tucker Carlson show pushing the debunked claim the riot was an FBI plot

• Fox News did not broadcast the prime-time January 6 committee hearings.
• Instead it ran Tucker Carlson's show as normal, with the unusual step of removing all ads.

Fox News did not broadcast the January 6 committee hearings Thursday, where the panel laid out evidence of a plot by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the insurrection at the US Capitol.

Instead, the network broadcast an hour-long, edition of Tucker Carlson's show, unusually with no ad breaks.

In the broadcast, the host sought to undermine the hearings using conspiracy theories and disinformation, notably repeating the bogus claim that the riot was instigated by FBI agents.

Carlson opened his show by proudly declaring he would not be showing the hearings, and seeking to minimise the riot. He called the events "an outbreak of mob violence, a forgettably minor outbreak by recent standards, that took place more than a year and a half ago."

Among the guests he featured was Darren Beattie, who was fired from the Trump administration for ties with white nationalists.

On the show Beattie pushed baseless claims that the riot was instigated by the FBI as part of a "false flag" plot to entrap Trump supporters.

Fox News attracted criticism this week when it announced it would not be broadcasting the hearings on the unprecedented attack on the seat of US democracy. The network instead relegated coverage to the Fox Business channel, which has a fraction of the audience Fox News attracts.

The account of the riot pushed by Carlson and his guests was in stark contrast to the evidence laid out by the panel, which showed new footage of the violence inflicted by Trump supporters on police as they battled their way into the Capitol.

The panel argued that the attack was the result of an campaign orchestrated by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. It showed evidence that Trump had supported chants by rioters calling for his vice president, Mike Pence, to be hanged for not helping overturn the election.

Carlson has been among the most influential promoters of disinformation about the riot, seeking to whitewash the attack and portraying subsequent investigations by Congress and law enforcement as part of a plot to discredit ordinary conservatives.

Several Fox News employees, including host Chris Wallace, quit their jobs in protest at the network's promotion of Carlson's disinformation about the riot, including a special Fox Nation documentary to which Beattie was a prominent contributor.