Tucker Carlson Has Left Fox News

In a surprise the Fox News Channel has announced that Tucker Carlson host of their top-rated primetime show is leaving Fox News. Carlson’s final show was last Friday, April 21. In the statement Fox News Media said “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” Fox News announced his one-hour weeknight program Tucker Carlson Tonight will be replaced by Fox News Tonight which will have a rotating host for the time being. The announcement came less than one week after Fox News agreed to pay Domination Voting Systems $787.5 million in settling a defamation lawsuit.

During the Dominion pretrial it was disclosed via private text messages that Carlson was fed up with Trump. Two days before January 6, Carlson had privately text messaged he was done with Trump and his unfound claims of a rigged election. After the text messages had been released Carlson interviewed the former President on his program earlier this month.

Carlson began his career at Fox News as a contributor in 2009. From 2012 to 2016 Carlson was co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend. His primetime show began in November 2016. Six months later Carlson replaced the top-rated Bill O’Reilly in the 8 p.m. (ET) time period. (Fox News forced O’Reilly out after a series of sexual harassment allegations became known and a number of marketers pulled their ads.)

Fox News has been a top-rated cable network and Carlson hosted the top-rated primetime program on the cable network. In the second quarter 2020 with the Presidential election nearing, Carlson’s show averaged 4.33 million viewers, the highest rated quarter for any cable news program. In first quarter 2023, Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 3.246 million viewers ranking a close second behind The Five (3.256 million) (also on Fox News) as the top rated cable news program. During the first week of April with former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, Tucker Carlson was the most watched cable news program averaging 4.035 million viewers.

Throughout his tenure at Fox News controversy swirled around Tucker Carlson. In early March Carlson began televising footage from the January 6 insurrection in an attempt to change the perception of the attack which was widely criticized. Carlson had exclusively been given 41,000 hours of security footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Despite his strong ratings dozens of dozens of prominent marketers have pulled their ads from his program because of his on-air comments. In 2018 he said immigration makes the country “poorer, dirtier and more divided” He has made disparaging comments about “Black Lives Matter” and “white replacement theory” among other inflammatory subjects.

As a result, on more than one occasion, advocacy groups demanded Fox News cancel Tucker Carlson’s show. With millions of viewers every weeknight and the support of management, these attempts had been to no avail.

Nonetheless, with a dearth of blue-chip marketers, oftentimes the ad load was filled with a combination of promos and low-cost direct response and My Pillow ads. This lack of demand kept ad rates low despite the millions of viewers watching every night.

Carlson is the second on-air personality to depart from Fox News in a matter of days. Dan Bongino Unfiltered who hosted a top-rated show on Saturday evenings, surprisingly announced he was leaving the network. Bongino said he and Fox News could not come to terms with a new contract.

Fox News is also facing another defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic with a trial expected to take place in 2025. Smartmatic provided voting technology in Los Angeles County for the 2020 election. In their complaint, Smartmatic said Fox joined the conspiracy to defame and disparage Smartmatic, its election technology and software, which led to a mob attacking the U.S. Capitol. In the lawsuit Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages.