Tucker Carlson Is Out at Fox News

Fox News and its biggest star just broke up.

Fox News announced Monday morning that Tucker Carlson’s reign as the anchor of the cable news network’s primetime is over.

“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,” Fox News said in a Monday morning statement. “Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”

That’s a shocking announcement: Carlson’s show has drawn the highest audience of any cable news show in the country for years, often pulling in more than 3 million viewers in a night. His hardline conservative viewpoints and racially charged statements found a huge audience with Fox’s core viewership.

It’s unclear what triggered this. Carlson didn’t immediately reply to a text from VICE News, and a Fox spokeswoman pointed back to the company’s statement when asked for information about what caused the decision and whose decision it was.

Carlson has spent the better part of the past two years pushing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, producing documentaries that claimed that the riot was a false-flag operation and that the pro-Trump protestors were actually victims.

The split comes less than a week after Fox News settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million to avoid an embarrassing trial that could have forced it to admit its anchors knowingly lied when they pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Carlson and other Fox stars were slated to have to testify in that trial.

Carlson’s abrupt departure came after his former senior booking producer, Abby Grossberg, filed a lawsuit that accused Carlson’s show of being a hostile and misogynistic work environment where she faced sexism and antisemitism. Grossberg also claimed that Fox’s lawyers pushed her to lie in testimony for the Dominion lawsuit.

Carlson’s departure was so abrupt that Fox was still airing ads promoting his show as of Monday morning, and its notable that he will be off the air immediately without a chance to host a final goodbye show for his massive audience.

Carlson was one of former President Donald Trump’s loudest cheerleaders during his presidency. But the pre-trial discovery phase of the Dominion lawsuit revealed that Carlson had repeatedly slammed the president in private.

“I hate him passionately,” Carlson texted just a few days before the Capitol riot.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” he said in another text.

Carlson also had some sharp words about others at Fox as well.

Sources told The Los Angeles Times that Carlson’s exit is related to the Grossberg lawsuit. The Washington Post reported that Carlson’s comments about Fox management played a role in his departure.

Carlson reportedly made $10 million a year for Fox, and had increased sway at the network in recent years, with a documentary series and a second show.

He has arguably been the most influential player in right-wing media during the Trump era as well, as evidenced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision (under pressure from his right-wing members) to give him exclusive access to thousands of hours of previously private police security footage of the Capitol riot. There have even been rumors that he might one day run for president.

Carlson isn’t the only host to leave the network in recent days: Dan Bongino announced last week that he and Fox couldn’t come to terms on renewing his contract and that his show was over as well.

In one private text to his producer, Carlson fretted that the former president could wreck things at Fox.

“What [Trump]’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong,” he warned.

With Carlson’s departure, it looks like that prediction may have come true.