Less than a week after Fox News settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation claim by agreeing to pay $787.5 million, the network has announced that Tucker Carlson is parting ways with it.
“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,” the statement reads. “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.”
#BREAKING: "Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways." pic.twitter.com/kY1mlJxzOV
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 24, 2023
Carlson’s highly rated show got a boost recently for his presentation of January 6 Capitol riot footage that was not previously made public by the partisan January 6 Committee. “The very strong prime time number was anchored by Tucker Carlson, who brought in 4.14 million total viewers as his show sparked controversy on Monday night for his Jan. 6th coverage. Fox prime time doubled MSNBC’s average of 1.49 million total viewers and brought in more than six times the viewers of CNN. CNN’s prime time average came in at 451,000 total viewers,” Mediaite reported at the time.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for Tucker to be censored, insisting that Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch “has a special obligation to stop Tucker Carlson from going on tonight, now that he’s seen how he has perverted and slimed the truth, and from letting him go on again and again and again.”
The exact reason for Carlson and Fox News parting ways has not been revealed yet. His departure follows the departure of Dan Bongino last week.
Carlson’s show premiered in November 2016 and has often sparked controversy, but he has consistently been one of the most-watched hosts on the network.
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The Fox statement includes: “FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad-supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 21 consecutive years, while FBN ranks among the top business channels on cable. Owned by Fox Corporation, FOX News Media reaches nearly 200 million people each month.”
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