Disclosed is a method and system for reducing the load on a downlink control channel of a given carrier of a plurality of carriers in a coverage area. As disclosed, a base station may determine that the downlink control channel of the given carrier is threshold loaded. In response to this determination, the base station may then (a) identify a particular subset of the UEs that are currently designated for DCI transmission on the downlink control channel of the given carrier and then (b) take action to de-designate the identified subset of UEs for DCI transmission on the given carrier and instead designate the identified subset of UEs for DCI transmission only on one or more other carriers in the coverage area.