Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways, the media company said in a statement on Monday, less than a week after Fox News and parent company Fox Corp (FOXA.O) settled a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million.
The settlement with Denver-based Dominion averted a trial putting one of the world's top media companies in the crosshairs over its coverage of false vote-rigging claims in the 2020 U.S. election. Carlson had been expected to testify in the Dominion trial.
Dominion had alleged that statements made on Carlson’s show after the 2020 election were defamatory. The company claimed that messages between Carlson and his team were proof that they knew claims Dominion's ballot-counting machines were used to manipulate the presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden were false.
“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said in the statement. The company did not offer an explanation for Carlson's departure.
Carlson’s last program was April 21, the company said in a statement. It said that "Fox News Tonight" will air live at 8 p.m. EST starting today as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.
"Tucker Carlson Tonight" was among Fox News' top-rated primetime shows, regularly attracting more than 3 million nightly viewers. Fox is the most-watched U.S. cable news network.
After the announcement of Carlson's departure from Fox News, a spokesperson for former U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted: "Fox News is controlled opposition." Trump gave an interview with Carlson earlier this month that aired on Fox News.
Shares of Fox Corp were down about 5% after the announcement.
Over the weekend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Fox News and Tucker Carlson of incitement to violence and suggested that they should be regulated by the government. And speaking of Fox News and Tucker Carlson:
Is this a joke?
Apparently not:
Here’s the official statement:
Wow. Love him or hate him, Tucker Carlson was a rating magnet for Fox News. Wonder what happened.
Fairly.
Some things to consider:
Stay tuned, we guess?
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional text and tweets.
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Update:
Fox News anchor and host Harris Faulkner have addressed Carlson’s departure on air:
Meanwhile:
CNN Mornings anchor Don Lemon is out at CNN.
The anchor shared a post on his social media accounts saying that he was informed by his agent on Monday morning that he was being terminated.
In a memo to CNN staff Monday, which was viewed by The Hollywood Reporter, CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote that “Don will forever be a part of the CNN family and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years.”
Lemon agreed to undergo “formal training” and was temporarily pulled from CNN after controversy erupted over comments he made about GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley.
But it turns out that there can be shakeups at lower-rated networks, too. Like at CNN, where problematic and reliably annoying host Don Lemon has just been let go:
Also has an “effective immediately” vibe.
Geez! Not that we’re sorry to see him go or anything, but is there some kind of big Media Purge happening that we weren’t aware of?
We don’t know, but obviously, we’re going to keep an eye on this. And taking bets on who might be next on the chopping block, of course.
Who are you putting your money on? By our calculations, it’s MSNBC’s turn to fire someone.
It’s never good for fill-in hosts. We know. We’ve done it. Brian Kilmeade is the first up in rotating hosts trying to fill the void left by Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox News.
Kilmeade is even trending on Twitter, so we will look at some of the responses to the undeleted show promo tweet and reactions to the hashtag. Yeah, you read that right; he deleted the first tweet due to, we suspect, all of the negative responses.
There’s an interesting image, but why would ANYONE watch The View?
We apologize in advance for this next one, especially if you happen to be eating.
Ryan has us flashing back to Randy Jackson on American Idol.
And the hits keep coming!
So does this mean Kilmeade could land My Pillow as a sponsor?
We’ve seen this a lot today as well. Fox may regret this decision soon.
It’s not all hate though.
As we said, filling in is hard. It’s hard enough when it’s just a break. It’s a lot harder when it’s because a host and a parent company part ways.
We don’t know what the future holds for Fox News, but one thing is for sure: Much like former Bud Light drinkers, the magic may be gone for now former Fox viewers.