Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News after a seven-year reign as its most watched nightly host and 14 years after first joining as a contributor.
In a shock announcement Monday, the network announced his departure, saying his final show was on April 21st.
‘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,’ the network statement read.
Host Harris Faulkner also announced his departure on air, saying: ‘We have some news from within our Fox family. Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have mutually agreed to part ways. Tucker’s last show was this past Friday.’
An interim roster of hosts will take over in his absence until a permanent replacement is chosen.
Carlson – who signed off his final show on Friday with ‘that’s it for us for the week, we’ll be back!’ – is yet to comment.
Shares in Fox Corp, the network’s parent company, fell by 5 percent after the announcement – wiping $690million from its market value.
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News after reigning over the network as one of its most beloved hosts for nearly a decade. He is shown on his final show on April 21
Shares in Fox Corp, the network’s parent company, fell by 5 percent after the announcement – wiping $690million from its market value
Carlson’s departure comes just five days after Fox settled with Dominion Voting Systems which had sued for defamation, claiming hosts like Carlson knew President Trump’s election fraud claims were untrue, but pushed them for ratings.
Dominion sued for $1.6billion and settled for $787million at the 11th hour, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing and highly-publicized trial where Carlson and other hosts would likely have been called as witnesses.
Among discovery submitted before the trial were text messages in which Carlson described his ‘passionate’ hatred of President Trump.
Carlson’s show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was the gleaming jewel of Fox’s nightly line-up, drawing in 3.5million viewers every night.
But a series of recent controversies including the Dominion claims and his own comments about the January 6 riots led him into hotter water than even he was used to.
Among discovery submitted before the trial were text messages in which Carlson described his ‘passionate’ hatred of President Trump
It’s unclear how long he had left on his contract, or whether Fox will pay severance.
A spokesman did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s inquiries.
A 2020 report by CNN’s Brian Stelter listed his salary as $10million-a-year.
Carlson joined Fox as a contributor in 2009, having previously offered his conservative opinions on CNN shows.
He was given his own show on the network in 2016 and quickly became its most watched host, cementing his own fanbase and reputation for taking some of the most extreme, hard-right positions on cable news.
In recent years, it has been dubbed by liberal media ‘the most racist show on cable’.
Advertisers boycotted as he grew more controversial, but Fox watched as the ratings soared.
Last week, his Thursday 8pm show attracted nearly 500,000 more viewers than Sean Hannity, Fox’s second most watched host, in the 9pm hour.
In 2010, he created the conservative news site The Daily Caller. He sold his stake in 2020, three years after being given his own Fox News show.
Carlson, 53, with his wife Susan Andrews (far right). The pair have four children together
After the announcement of Carlson’s departure on Monday, shares in Fox Corp – Fox News’ parent company – fell by 4 percent from $33.71 to $31.86.
Rupert Murdoch is yet to comment on his departure.
Tucker was largely spared from his wrath in the Dominion filings.
In one, the News Corp titan instead said Hannity and Laura Ingraham had perhaps ‘gone too far’ in their coverage of Trump’s election fraud claims, but Carlson wasn’t mentioned.
He has never hidden his disdain for the president.
In a 2016 article for Politico, Carlson called him ‘shocking’ and ‘vulgar’. He resisted having him on his show repeatedly, instead interviewing him on occasion during Trump’s presidency.
Hard-line conservatives were quick to commiserate.
Carlson with Neil Patel, his Daily Caller co-founder. They founded the site in 2010
Recently, Carlson’s views pushed even further to the right. He claimed the public had been repeatedly lied to about January 6 and that his shows and documentaries would unearth the truth – but they were criticized by Republicans
Steve Bannon, on his podcast show, said: ‘Tucker was the mainstay of the populist voice over at Fox.
‘The reason to watch Fox, you’ve got Maria (Bartiromo) in the morning, Jesse (Watters), he is getting there, but Tucker’s really the reason.
‘With this, I don’t know any reason to watch the Murdoch empire.’
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: ‘Tucker Carlson out at Fox News. OMG.’
While conservatives mourned him, liberals like those at The View celebrated the announcement gleefully.
Whoopi Goldberg announced the news, before Ana Navarro – one of the panel’s few Republican hosts – led the audience in a chant of ‘hey, hey, hey, goodbye!’
Carlson’s departure from Fox wasn’t the only media-shaking announcement of the morning.
Shortly after his ousting was announced, CNN’s Chris Licht announced the departure of embattled host Don Lemon from the network.
Lemon was skewered for a series of sexist remarks and performances on the new CNN This Morning.