Fox News fired prime-time anchor Tucker Carlson on Monday. Carlson’s rants and speculations about Russia and the January 6 rebellion had come to define the network in recent years and made him a powerful influence in Republican politics.
According to Fox, the network and Carlson “agreed to part ways,” and the final episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired last Friday.
However, the network gave no reason for the shocking action. Carlson announced the show’s conclusion with, “We’ll be back on Monday.”
Fox and Carlson have been hit with a wave of legal problems just before the break begins. Fox settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems last week for more than $787 million for the network’s dissemination of fraudulent allegations following the 2020 presidential election, just before Carlson was scheduled to testify.
On Sunday, CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcast a piece on a guy at the center of a conspiracy theory from January 6 who claimed Tucker Carlson was “obsessed” with him and whose attorney has notified Fox of prospective litigation.
A former Fox producer identified Carlson in a complaint she filed against the network after she claimed she was forced to provide false evidence in the Dominion case and that she had been subjected to a hostile and sexist work environment on the show.
There was a lot of bloodshed in cable news on Monday, and CNN added to it by firing its own troubled host, Don Lemon. After saying that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “past her prime” and being forced to apologize, Lemon found he didn’t fit in with his other morning anchors.
On the other hand, Carlson’s impact was larger, his audience size was larger, and his departure was more stunning.
Before taking over for Bill O’Reilly in Fox News’ primetime schedule in 2017, he had previously worked for CNN and MSNBC but is now the network’s most popular personality despite ditching his trademark bow tie.
His message that Washington elites are out to get the average American resounded with Fox’s conservative audience, and some viewers even speculated that Carlson would run for office in the future.
A remark request sent to him on Monday went unanswered.
As soon as Carlson’s resignation was announced, Fox Corp. stock dropped by 4 percent, before recovering to close the day down 2 and a half percent.
“Tucker Carlson had become even bigger than Fox News,” “Network of Lies,” a forthcoming book by Brian Stelter, states that Fox “Network of Lies.” “His sudden ouster will have profound consequences for Fox News, for TV news and the Republican Party.”
The studio audience on Monday’s broadcast of “The View” on ABC applauded when Gretchen Carlson revealed she was leaving the show. Then, host Ana Navarro got everyone to sing along to a lyric by saying, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”