Tucker Carlson leaves Fox News

The surprise move comes after the star host made disparaging remarks about colleagues.

Fox News host Tucker Carlsonis leaving the company. Picture: AFP.

Fox News parted ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, a surprising move that comes after he made disparaging remarks about colleagues at the network that were disclosed during a legal battle with a voting-machine company.

Mr. Carlson’s departure puts an end to a decade-plus tenure at the conservative news network during which he rose to become the highest-rated host in prime-time cable news.

Mr. Carlson, whose contract was renewed in 2021, will be paid out for the rest of his contract, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Carlson is paid about $US20 million a year, one of the people said. Mr. Carlson found out he was being let go about 10 minutes before the network announced his departure, the people said.

Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent Fox Corp., and Fox News Chief Executive Suzanne Scott decided Mr. Carlson would leave the network on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Carlson’s exit creates another high-profile opening in a cable news landscape where familiar faces have been leaving over the past year-and-a-half. Also on Monday, CNN parted ways with Don Lemon, who had moved from prime time to co-anchor the network’s new morning show, a move that has failed to generate strong ratings.

Fox News on Monday said Mr. Carlson’s last show was on Friday, April 21, and said it would rely on a rotation of hosts until it names a permanent anchor for the 8 p.m. program.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade anchored the show on Monday night. In opening remarks, Mr. Kilmeade acknowledged Mr. Carlson’s departure and said he was “great friends with Tucker.” A lawyer representing Mr. Carlson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Fox’s decision to let Mr. Carlson go comes less than a week after Fox News parent Fox Corp. agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle its legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, which had accused Fox’s news networks of airing false claims by hosts and guests that Dominion helped rig the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Joe Biden. Mr. Carlson had been expected to testify during the trial.

Fox Corp. shares common ownership with the parent of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher. Fox shares fell 3 per cent Monday.

Private messages sent by Mr. Carlson to colleagues were made public in the legal proceedings of the Dominion defamation suit. In some, Mr. Carlson mocked claims made on air by guests, said he hated former President Donald Trump and complained about colleagues and Fox executives.

In a private text-message exchange about two weeks after Election Day, Mr. Carlson and fellow prime-time hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity complained about the network’s news coverage, including the fact that the network was the first to call the key state of Arizona for Mr. Biden on the night of the election -- a decision that angered some core Fox News viewers.

“We devote our lives to building an audience and they let Chris Wallace and Leland f -- ing Vittert wreck it,” Mr. Carlson wrote, according to one document, referring to two then-members of Fox’s newsroom. Mr. Wallace is now at CNN and Mr. Vittert is a reporter at NewsNation.

“Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience?” Mr. Carlson wrote in another text message to a colleague, according to court documents.

Fox took issue with remarks Mr. Carlson made that were derogatory toward the network, people familiar with the matter said. Much of the communications were redacted in court documents but became known internally to senior Fox management, they said.

Mr. Carlson also complained to a colleague when a Fox News reporter fact-checked one of Mr. Trump’s tweets that mentioned Dominion: “Please get her fired,” Mr. Carlson told fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to a court filing. “It’s measurably hurting the company.” Before the Dominion suit was settled, Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had already concluded that Fox News and Fox Business did in fact broadcast false claims about Dominion, voiced by both network hosts and Trump associates. In a statement announcing the settlement, Fox acknowledged the judge’s findings.

Court documents also revealed Mr. Carlson’s feelings about Mr. Trump. In a text message exchange from January 2021, Mr. Carlson said the network was “very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” and said “I hate him passionately,” referring to the former president.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that Mr. Trump is the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential-nomination race.

Mr. Carlson recently drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for airing a segment that showed previously unaired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Carlson said that lawmakers had intentionally overstated the violence. “The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress” in the Capitol, Mr. Carlson said during an early March show.

Mr. Carlson is a defendant in a lawsuit filed last month by Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Mr. Carlson and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. The suit, which also names Fox and other individuals, said, “Mr. Carlson’s derogatory comments towards women, and his disdain for those who dare to object to such misogyny, is well known on the set” of his show. Fox News fired Ms. Grossberg shortly afterward, saying she filed her complaint without taking steps to protect “portions containing Fox’s privileged information.” Ms. Grossberg’s lawyers described her firing as “retaliatory.” In a statement Monday following news of Mr. Carlson’s ouster, Ms. Grossberg’s lawyers said: “Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News is, in part, an admission of the systemic lying, bullying, and conspiracy-mongering claimed by our client.” Mr. Carlson had no comment on the lawsuit. Fox at the time said it hired independent outside counsel to investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg.

Fox has lost a series of prominent hosts in recent years, including Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly -- both of whom were succeeded by Mr. Carlson, who went on to become cable news’ highest-rated prime-time host. Prime-time shows get the biggest share of the audience for Fox and other cable channels, and are a key driver of the network’s advertising business.

Mr. Carlson began his career in print, writing for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the conservative Weekly Standard magazine. He rose to national prominence as the co-host of the CNN show “Crossfire,” where he represented the political right until the show’s cancellation in 2005, and had a memorable run-in with then-”Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. He also had a stint on MSNBC and co-founded the conservative site the Daily Caller.

During his prime-time tenure at Fox News, Mr. Carlson became a lightning rod for frequently making controversial remarks. In a recent show, Mr. Carlson suggested that Justin Pearson, one of the Tennessee lawmakers protesting for stricter gun control, probably got into an elite college because he was a Black man.

Mr. Carlson also lamented changes made by candy giant Mars Inc. to different M&M mascots, including the decision to switch the green M&M’s footwear from boots to sneakers. In 2018, he faced an advertising boycott after saying on air that certain immigrants were making the U.S. “dirtier and more divided.” Fox blamed the boycott of Mr. Carlson on advocacy groups that called out brands for advertising on the network.

Besides his nightly presence on Fox News, Mr. Carlson is also prominent on Fox Nation, the news channel’s direct-to-streaming service. He has hosted specials and investigative reports on the platform.

Dow Jones