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Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News, according to a Monday announcement from the company.
"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 Fox News Media statement said.
Tucker Carlson Tonight, which ran in the 8 p.m. slot, will be replaced with Fox News Tonight, according to the statement. It added that a rotating cast of personalities will host the show until a permanent host takes over the time slot.
This past Friday's episode of Carlson's show was his last for the network. Newsweek reached out to Fox News via email for comment.
In 2016, Carlson began hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight, a political talk show, after beginning his career in print journalism for conservative publications like The Weekly Standard. He was an on-air personality for CNN and MSNBC before he began appearing on Fox.
Carlson has often been called the most-watched cable news host in the United States. During his run on Fox News, he broke viewership ratings, and millions of people tuned in for his take on the news and politics.
He recently made headlines when legal documents released as part of a defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems revealed that he said in private text messages from 2021 that he "passionately" hated Donald Trump.
Last week, a $787.5 million settlement was reached between Fox News and Dominion. The voting machine company had accused the network's anchors of making false claims about the 2020 presidential election results. Dominion's lawsuit also alleged that Fox News personalities promoted former Trump's baseless claims that the election was stolen and that ballots cast through Dominion machines were "flipped" from Trump to President Joe Biden.
Carlson's exit is the second major departure for Fox News in the wake of the Dominion settlement. On Thursday, Dan Bongino announced he was leaving the network. He had hosted Unfiltered With Dan Bongino on Saturday nights since 2021. Fox said it would also cease streaming Bongino's radio show on Fox Nation.
Soon after news of Carlson's departure broke on Monday, Don Lemon announced on Twitter that his agent told him he had been fired from his CNN hosting job.
"I am stunned," Lemon tweeted. "After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly."
In a statement from CEO Chris Licht, CNN later confirmed that Lemon was leaving the cable news channel.
"Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years," Licht said. "We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors."
Marion Coomey, a professor with the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, told Newsweek that while she wasn't surprised by Lemon's firing, she did not see Carlson's departure coming.
"Fox usually stands by its hosts regardless of how outrageous their behavior is on air," Coomey said, noting it took "major charges of sexual harrassment" before former FOX News CEO Rogers Ailes and former host Bill O'Reilly were let go.
"Carlson and several of the other hosts have been disseminating conspiracy theories and stretching the truth for years, and there's been no fallback for them because they get such massive audiences," Coomey said.
She added, "Because Fox barely covered the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit and none of the hosts were required to go on air and apologize for what they'd said, I thought they'd just brush it under the rug and wait for the next news cycle."
Update, 04/24/2023, 12:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with more background and information.
Update, 04/24/2023, 5:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from Marion Coomey.
About the writer
Jon Jackson is a News Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more