Fox News Breaks Up With Tucker Carlson in Surprise Exit

Brian Steinberg

Tucker Carlson, the now-former Fox News primetime host, used to deride critics’ attempts to get his show cancelled.

“Trust me, it’s a constant assault. It’s a never-ending effort to take us off the air,” he told Variety in 2020. At the time, he said he was lucky to have “the support of the Murdochs,” including that of Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox News’ corporate parent.

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On Monday, however, the pundit found he should have been watching his back. Murdoch, according to a person familiar with the matter, decided he could no longer support the popular conservative pundit. His son,Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, and Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, made the decision to cut ties with Carlson on Friday, according to a different person familiar with the circumstances. Carlson’s exit was announced Monday morning.

Carlson, Fox News Channel’s most-watched primetime host, will leave the network in an abrupt and surprise exit, creating a sizable hole in its schedule and bringing to an end years of a self-generated battle against, in the host’s own oft-repeated words, lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. His departure generates dozens of questions as its parent company grapples with pressures resulting from a $787 million settlement it will have to pay to Dominion Voting Systems.

“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a statement Monday. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to elaborate. Justin Wells, Carlson’s longtime executive producer, who also had a role in overseeing content Carlson created for the Fox Nation streaming service, is also said to be departing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Murdoch has a history of breaking up abruptly with trusted confidants and talent when greater pressures emerge. Fox News, for example, ousted Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly from the company when outcries over claims of sexual harassment became impossible to ignore. A Fox Corp. spokesperson could not be reached for immediate comment.

Carlson will not appear on Fox News again in his current role. His last broadcast, Fox News said, took place on Friday — meaning he will not be given the opportunity to bid viewers farewell.

The host’s exit comes just days after corporate parent Fox Corp. agreed to pay $787.5 million in a settlement to Dominion Voting Systems after being accused of defaming the ballot-technology company by passing along specious conspiracy theories about its role in the 2020 presidential election. Carlson, who has recently aired segments tilting at the veracity of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020 and regularly filled Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour with a litany of diatribes against subjects ranging from Black Lives Matter to Senator Tammy Duckworth over the years, was expected to have to testify in the matter and the goings-on at his show were expected to be analyzed in a separate suit Fox is navigating involving Abby Grossberg, a former producer. She alleged that Carlson’s staff made crude remarks about women and Jews.

Fox News appears to be cleaning house of some of its most rightward-leaning elements. Last week, the network failed to come to renewal terms with weekend host Dan Bongino, a popular pundit in ultra-conservative circles.

Rivals will likely seize on Carlson’s absence. “For a while Fox News has been moving to become establishment media and Tucker Carlson’s removal is a big milestone in that effort,” said Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the conservative news outlet Newsmax, in a statement on Monday. “Millions of viewers who liked the old Fox News have made the switch to Newsmax and Tucker’s departure will only fuel that trend.”

Within Fox, some staffers are said to be “elated” at Carlson’s departure, according to the person familiar with the network. These employees felt the constant attention devoted to Carlson’s many controversies had long overshadowed the rest of the network’s schedule, and there is some hope his departure will let a spotlight shine on other parts of the operation.

Despite his position at Fox News and the favor he curried among viewers, Carlson’s presence could be divisive. In court documents unearthed in the discovery process in the Dominion case, Carlson was caught calling for the ouster of Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich, who had fact-checked a statement from former President Donald Trump on air. Carlson also squabbled publicly with former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, who Carlson mocked on Twitter and, once, on air.

Carlson’s show has also proved problematic for the business side of Fox News Channel. Over the years, many national advertisers have asked that their commercials not be placed in his program, fearful that advocacy organizations would call them out on Twitter for supporting some of Carlson’s stances. More recently, however, Carlson’s program has seen ad dollars return, according to Vivvix, a tracker of ad spending. In 2022, advertisers spent around $77.5 million on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” compared with $67.6 million in 2021 — representing a jump of approximately 14.7%. In contrast, “Hannity” captured nearly $50.4 million in 2022, while “The Ingraham Angle” lured about $53.7 million.

Fox News has been able to come back from the unexpected departures of its best-known personalities, including exits by Smith and Greta Van Susteren. In 2017, both Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly, the anchors of Fox News’ 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. programs, left. Kelly went to NBC News and O’Reilly was pushed out. Executives at the network quickly filled the slots with a 7 p.m. show Carlson was hosting — a favorite of Murdoch — and with a new evening version of the popular roundtable show “The Five.” Carlson’s exit will doubt spur a new round of opinion applicants, who could range from weekend host Lawrence Jones to the early-evening mainstay Jesse Watters — or, an as-yet-unknown idea brewing in the minds of Fox News’ Scott and her colleagues.

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