Fox News Parts Ways With Dan Bongino: ‘It’s A Sad Day’

Fox News has ended its relationship with Dan Bongino, who hosted the Saturday night show Unfiltered with Dan Bongino. “Folks, regretfully, last week was my last show on Fox News on the Fox News Channel,” Bongino said on his podcast Thursday. “It’s tough. It’s tough to say that. You know, I’ve been there doing hits and working there for ten years…so the show ending was tough. And I want you to know it’s not some big conspiracy. I promise you. There’s no acrimony. This wasn’t some WWE brawl that happened. We just couldn’t come to terms on an extension.”

Bongino’s Canceled in the USA show, which has streamed on Fox’s streaming service, Fox Nation, will end as well. In a statement, Fox News said, “We thank Dan for his contributions and wish him success in his future endeavors.” The last episode of Bongino’s Saturday night program aired on April 15th.

“It’s a sad day,” Bongino said on his podcast, noting that he was given the chance to do one final episode of the show, but he decided not to. “The most important events in my life I learned about on Fox News,” Bongino said, reflecting on his long ties to the network. Fox will air Lawrence Jones Cross Country in place of Bongino’s show this Saturday, and the network says a new schedule will be announced “in the coming weeks.”

Bongino’s show, which aired at 9 p.m. ET on Saturdays, was a ratings success for Fox News, with last Saturday’s episode of Unfiltered—the final episode—drawing 1.179 million viewers. It ranked as the highest-rated show of the day Saturday. For the first quarter of 2023, Unfiltered was the top show in prime time with 1.3 million viewers and 134,000 viewers in the key demographic of viewers 25-54, the group most valued by advertisers.

“We were the number one show 90% of the time,” Bongino said. “We had a great team.” Bongino said “you’re going to read a thousand left wing articles about some nonsense, and I’m guaranteeing you on my reputation, it is all made up. It’s a simple contract thing, and that’s it. It is no more complicated than that.”

For Fox, losing Bongino means possibly alienating his significant audience. Bongino, who has more than 4 million followers on Twitter, seemed to go to great lengths to tell his podcast listeners that he has no bad feelings toward Fox. The news comes as Fox News agreed to a $787 million settlement in Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit, ending weeks of damaging stories about Fox News hosts saying one thing in private and then something else to their viewers, and executives privately expressing fears of angering Donald Trump and the network’s loyal viewers.