Fox News Media says one of its star commentators, Tucker Carlson, has left the Fox News Channel, a decision that was described as mutual, a spokesperson confirmed to The Desk on Monday.
Carlson’s last show was Friday, April 21. The network will replace his show with “Fox News Tonight” at 8 p.m. Eastern Time until a replacement host is named.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” a spokesperson for Fox News Channel’s parent company said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Here's how the Fox News Channel announced the departure of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host Tucker Carlson. [Video: Fox News Channel] pic.twitter.com/GBYEusQWMO
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) April 24, 2023
The resignation of the top Fox News Channel star comes less than a week after Fox Corporation settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for more than $787 million.
Carlson joined Fox News as a contributor in May 2009, appearing frequently as a conservative commentator on the channel’s prime-time opinion programming. He landed his own show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” in November 2016, and it became the cornerstone of the Fox News prime-time block following the resignation of top host Bill O’Reilly amid a sexual harassment scandal one year later.
In addition to the Fox News show, Carlson was also a contributor to the streaming service Fox Nation, where he recently narrated “Scam Bankrupt Fraud: The Story of FTX,” a documentary that followed the rise and fall of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Related: Tucker Carlson caught off guard by Fox News firing, source says
Carlson is one of the few cable news personalities to appear or host a show on all three major networks. His cable news career began at CNN in 2000, where he appeared as the political right personality opposite James Carville on the program “Crossfire.” Carlson became an internet sensation following a spirited discussion with then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart, appearing in one of CNN’s earliest viral videos.
In 2005, executives at CNN decided to not renew Carlson’s contract, and he took his talent to MSNBC, where “The Situation with Tucker Carlson” ran for three years before it was canceled due to low ratings.
Grabbing viewers was not a problem for Carlson at Fox News: His program consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated prime-time cable news shows in the country. The program helped Fox News sustain its lead as the most-watched cable news network over the last few months, even as unsavory text messages and e-mails about Carlson and other Fox News personalities surfaced through the Dominion Voting defamation case.
