Fox News announced Monday that it is parting ways with far-right prime-time host Tucker Carlson.
“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,” a statement by the conservative network read.
The cable news giant said that Carlson’s last program was Friday, April 21, and that starting Monday evening, the network will air its show “Fox News Tonight” as “an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”
Fox News did not say why it’s parting ways with the host, who has become known for his strident racism, homophobia, xenophobia and misogyny, and for leaning increasingly into white nationalist talking points. The company did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s query about why Carlson is no longer at the network.
Carlson gave no apparent indication on Friday’s program that it would be his last show. The host ended his segment by saying he and his show would “be back on Monday.” Carlson was told the news about 10 minutes before the conservative network announced he was leaving, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Last week, Fox News’ parent company settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. The network was accused of spreading misinformation that Dominion’s voting machines were rigged to prevent former President Donald Trump from winning the 2020 election.
Dominion subpoenaed a number of internal communications from Carlson and others at Fox News ― revealing, among other things, that Carlson declared he hated Trump “passionately,” and that he privately considered the voting machine conspiracy “absurd.”
Carlson’s departure also comes about a month after a former top booker on his show filed a lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that she encountered “vile sexist stereotypes” while working for the host.
Carlson joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009, and co-hosted the network’s show “Fox & Friends Weekend” between 2012 and 2016. He then moved into a prime-time slot and skyrocketed in popularity on the right. According to The Washington Post, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” averaged 3.32 million total viewers last year, and had the largest audience in the entire cable news industry among the 25-34 age demographic.
At Fox News, Carlson routinely went out of his way to stake out conservative positions in a cruel and fearmongering manner, lashing out at women, people of color, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ+ community and anyone and anything else he deemed an agent of progressivism. He peddled lies about the 2020 election, minimized the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and often amplified the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
“This is major,” an unidentified on-air Fox News personality told the Post Monday of Carlson’s exit. “It sends a message that even the guy with the highest ratings of all, by a long shot, doesn’t get to survive this disaster.”