Tucker Carlson Departs Fox News
Two parties ‘have agreed to part ways,’ effective immediately
Host Tucker Carlson has left Fox News Channel. His last program was Friday, April 21.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” said the network.
Fox News did not give a reason for parting ways with Carlson, who hosted Tucker Carlson Tonight in the 8 p.m. ET weeknight slot.
His departure comes on the heels of Fox News paying $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought on by Dominion Voting Systems. Private text messages and emails from Fox News journalists and executives were revealed in stacks of testimony pertaining to the lawsuit, which saw Carlson express his disdain for former President Donald Trump.
Carlson, and Fox News, is also facing a lawsuit from a former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer, Abby Grossberg, whose suit mentioned a workplace where “the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision.”
Tucker Carlson Tonight is described on FoxNews.com as “the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.” It launched at 7 p.m. in 2016 and moved to 9 p.m. in 2017, when Megyn Kelly departed Fox. It moved again, to 8 p.m., when Bill O’Reilly left the network that same year.
Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 p.m. starting April 24 as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.
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Carlson was on CNN and MSNBC before joining Fox News in 2009.
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.