Fox News has agreed to “part ways” with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, the network announced Monday morning.
The announcement came days after Fox News settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over false claims made following the 2020 presidential election. It is unclear if the split between Carlson and Fox News was related to the settlement.
The network said Carlson’s last show was April 21. The time slot will be led by “rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”
“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said in a statement.
Carlson had been with Fox News since 2009 and hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight” from 2016 through last week.
Tucker Carlson speaks out for first time since Fox News dismissal
Carlson's comments came at 8:01 p.m. ET, about the same time he appeared on millions of TV screens each night for years.
Carlson had stints with CNN, PBS and MSNBC before joining Fox. While at CNN, he hosted the program “Crossfire,” which was most remembered for an infamous exchange with comedian Jon Stewart. During an interview on the show, Stewart ridiculed Carlson, telling him "Crossfire" was "hurting America."
But it was Carlson's work at Fox News that became most notable. During and following the Trump administration, he became an advocate for Donald Trump. He often echoed many of Trump’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen, despite dozens of court rulings to the contrary.
In a court filing from Dominion Voting Systems, Dominion noted that Carlson called Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election “the single greatest crime in American history," as he echoed false claims made by Trump attorney Sidney Powell.
But off the air, Carlson apparently sang a different tune.Text messages that surfaced during the Dominion case showed Carlson texting, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights” and that “I truly can't wait.”
He also was frequently the target of boycott calls among Democrats. On Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez placed some of the blame of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Carlson during an MSNBC interview.
"When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence — very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Carlson was given exclusive access to video of the Jan. 6 insurrection by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Other news outlets, including Scripps News, have asked for access to the video.
Carlson then used the video to downplay the insurrection, claiming the riot was not an insurrection and that some of those charged for being on Capitol had their civil liberties “annihilated.”
Fox News’ announcement came on the same day CNN and Don Lemon also parted ways.
Fox's settlement with Dominion unlikely to cost it $787.5M
How much the lawsuit will actually end up costing Fox is unclear because there are ways it can defray some of the expense.
