- Fox News' star host Tucker Carlson is gone, the media network announced Monday.
- The company said the two had "agreed to part ways."
Tucker Carlson and Fox News have "agreed to part ways," the cable-news giant announced Monday.
"We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor," the company said in a short statement.
Carlson's last episode of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" was Friday, Fox News said, though he didn't make any reference to his impending exit on the program.
Shortly after the company's announcement, Fox News' Harris Faulkner addressed Carlson's departure on the air. "We want to thank Tucker Carlson for his service to the network," Faulkner said.
She added that "Fox News Tonight" would air during Carlson's timeslot with "rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named."
—The Recount (@therecount) April 24, 2023
Carlson leaves Fox News less than a week after Fox settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over the cable company's promotion of lies about the 2020 election.
Before the lawsuit was settled, embarrassing texts revealed Carlson along with other Fox News stars slamming his network's coverage of the 2020 US election.
In November 2020, days after Donald Trump had lost the election, Carlson and other top opinion hosts trashed the network's executives, with Laura Ingraham saying "I think the three of us have enormous power."
Carlson's texts also revealed he called the Trump lawyer Sidney Powell a "fucking bitch" and said he was fed up with having to cover Trump, writing "I hate him passionately."
Carlson was a star for the conservative media powerhouse, garnering top ratings and becoming the face of the network with "Tucker Carlson Tonight," courting controversy along the way.
He has repeated Russian talking points on his program and is an outspoken opponent of US support for Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia's invasion. Earlier this year, Carlson's program aired footage from the Capitol riot provided by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy which Carlson used to argue the Trump supporters charged in the mob were being politically persecuted.
Law enforcement said the videos had been deceptively edited to avoid showing the violence of January 6, 2021.
Before his nightly talk show began airing in 2016, Carlson floated around various Fox News programs. In 2010, he cofounded The Daily Caller, a right-wing news and opinion outlet. Carlson operated as editor in chief until leaving the site in 2020.
Decades before his time at Fox News, Carlson climbed the ranks of right-wing media with positions at Policy Review, a quarterly journal published at the time by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, and The Weekly Standard. He began appearing on cable-news networks such as CNN, PBS, and MSNBC as an analyst and host.
Some friends from Carlson's early life previously told Insider they believed his hard-right turn that led to stardom at Fox News was disingenuous.
A prep-school friend, Richard Wayner, saw Carlson as deciding to follow a business model that had made his conservative media counterparts a lot of money.
"I don't think he has a mission. I don't think he has a plan," Wayner said. "Where he is right now is about as great as whatever he thought he could be."
"Tucker knows better. He does. He can get some attention, money, or both." he added. "To me, that's a shame. Because he knows better."