Fox News Channel has abruptly parted with its top-rated on-air personality, Tucker Carlson, following an embarrassing wave of depositional leaks tied to the just-settled Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a statement on Monday. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Carlson last hosted his nightly primetime show on Friday, signing off by telling his audience he'd be back on Monday. But he won't be. The departure is immediate, with no fanfare thrown in.
You can read Fox's terse statement here .
"Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named," the release adds.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Carlson’s exit is tied to a discrimination suit filed by recently fired Fox News producer Abby Grossberg. The decision to fire him reportedly came directly from Fox chief Rupert Murdoch, with his son, Lachlan, executive chairman of Fox, and CEO Suzanne Scott strongly suggesting to the elder Murdoch he let his highest rated Fox News personality go.
Carlson's exit also follows the departure last week of much lighter-hitting on-air talent Dan Bongino.
Further adding to the intrigue — CNN announced almost simultaneously the departure from the network of embattled host Don Lemon.
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As for Carlson, he joined Fox News in 2009 after appearing on CNN and MSNBC. According to a ranking of cable news personality salaries published last week by Yahoo Finance, Carlson made around $8 million a year at Fox, around a third of what colleague Sean Hannity pulls in.
According to TV Newser, Carlson’s 8 p.m. weeknight show was far and away the biggest draw in cable news. For example, Thursday’s penultimate cablecast averaged 334,000 viewers aged 25-54, the key demo, soundly trouncing competing shows from CNN's Anderson Cooper and MSNBC's Chris Hayes by more than 200,000 viewers.
Certainly, Carlson remains an asset in the realm of right-wing media — at least, for anyone who can figure out how to hire a man who made a reported $8 million annually at his last gig. Next TV asked Newsmax founder and chief Chris Ruddy if he'll make a run for a star that could be transformational to his cable network.
“For a while Fox News has been moving to become establishment media and Tucker Carlson’s removal is a big milestone in that effort,” Ruddy told Next TV. “Millions of viewers who liked the old Fox News have made the switch to Newsmax and this will only fuel that trend.”
Beyond the Abby Grossberg matter, Carlson’s exit isn’t a total surprise in the wake of Fox’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion last week. Numerous embarrassing leaks strongly indicated that Carlson had serious doubts about former President Donald Trump’s assertion about voter fraud tied to the 2020 election. Yet, his reports breathed life into the so-called “Big Lie,” as well as the debunked conspiracy theory that Dominion’s voting machines were used to perpetrate election fraud.
Fox still faces a libel suit from another voting machine maker, Smartmatic, in the same Delaware court in which it fought Dominion.
The leaks also seemed to further undermine the core of Fox News' credibility, which had long been debated, anyway.
Indeed, Carlson has increasingly been a lightning rod for Fox News. In March, Carlson was rebuked by even Republican lawmakers for segments suggesting that the January 6 insurrection amounted to little more than Washington, D.C. tourists getting a little rowdy.
In fact, just last night, Ray Epps — a former ardent Trump supporter singled out by the far right for causing the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol — blamed Carlson on 60 Minutes for being his principal false accuser. (You can see that video report here.)
Still, the reaction Monday from the Twitterati — well, what’s left of it anyway — was one of shock and awe, with veteran media reporter Brian Stelter calling Carlson's axing “an Earth-shaking moment in cable news.”
Meanwhile, left-of-center watchdog Media Matters weighed in Monday with its own statement: “Tucker Carlson is a dangerous misinformer. Tucker served as the bridge between Fox News and the most extreme parts of the right-wing base — laundering anti-trans paranoia, Infowars nonsense, election lies and venomous rhetoric, including the great replacement conspiracy theory, nightly.”
