While working as an executive producer at Fox News Channel, Justin Wells oversaw some of the cable-news outlet’s most controversial segments, as well as many hours of documentary programming crafted expressly for its Fox Nation streaming service. Now he wants to offer his expertise to less partisan media companies.
Wells, who helped build and run “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” has created a six-part documentary series, “Art of the Surge,” that follows former President Donald Trump through recent months of campaigning. One of the most salient features: Wells had a camera stationed just feet away as Secret Service agents scrambled to protect Trump during an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. The series debuts Wednesday on Carlson’s digital media properties, and, says Wells, is getting interest from an array of players — not just the usual suspects.
“Let me put it this way: I’m surprised,” he says during a recent interview. “It’s not like I’m just talking to Chris Ruddy [CEO] of Newsmax.”
He declined to name specific parties with whom he might be negotiating. In “Surge,” there is no commentary or monologues, just a fly-on-the-wall camera that lets viewers see Trump behind the scenes in some of the settings that have spurred headlines throughout his campaign.
Wells has launched a new production company, Ashokan Studios (the name means “place of many fishes” or “where rushing waters meet”), and thinks he can find a market for high-quality programing that will appeal to conservatives. Executives at streaming services, he says, “are looking and realizing that there’s a huge swath of Americans” — not just Trump supporters — who “are being left behind.”
There are many outlets that make scripted series or documentary programming for right-leaning or right-wing constituents, he says, but “some of that does not work or doesn’t have the production value that it should. That’s something I’m trying to solve for here.”
Wells would seem to have little in common with people like Don Lemon or Brian Williams but they are all part of a growing parade of former news personnel seeking to strike out on their own. Some of these efforts are fueled by ambition, or a desire to work outside the confines of traditional media. Others are spurred by an exit that may not have been expected. Wells and Carlson, who worked together for years, were dismissed abruptly from Fox News in 2023, even though his program — which drew lots of criticism and advertiser boycotts for some of its host’s stances on race and gender — was the linchpin of the primetime schedule . “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the company said in a statement at the time.
Wells said he cannot discuss much of his time at Fox News due to exit agreements, but said he was notified he was fired while taking an Uber ride to the network’s New York headquarters to start his day. He decided to fly down to Florida within hours and meet with Carlson, who lives there, and figure out what to do next.
The pair decided to try and launch a new media company built around Carlson, with Wells agreeing to help for a year. Wells says he helped develop a relationship with X and worked on marketing and programming, among other elements. Carlson agreed to help Wells launch his own company, which Wells says is “completely self-funded.” Wells continues to work with Carlson as a consultant.
“Surge” continues to take the producer to interesting places. He and his team have been on hand behind the scenes at both of this year’s presidential debates. He plans to be in the mix when Trump returns to Butler this weekend for a sort of memorial event. Wells even appears in one of the documentary episode giving viewers a look at some of the food — items from McDonald’s and Jimmy John’s — served on “Trump Force One,” the campaign plane.
Wells, who spent years at local stations in Florida and at New York’s WNYW before joining Fox News, shows up on screen occasionally on “Surge,” but says he has little interest in becoming an on-camera personality. Seeing the Trump campaign “for yourself, and seeing it unfiltered, is more important than my role,” he says.
Source Agencies
