Fox News’ longtime prime-time host Tucker Carlson no longer works there, the company announced Monday. His last show was on Friday.
“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 company said in a statement. Shares of Fox dropped more than 5% on the news.
The announcement comes days after the network agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. Denver-based electronic voting machine company Dominion alleged that Fox News made false claims it had rigged the election in favor of President Joe Biden. Dominion’s lawsuit is only one of several against Fox that it knowingly made false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
“It knew the allegations against Dominion were ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy’ and ‘ludicrous’ and ‘nuts.’ Yet it used the power and influence of its platform to promote that false story,” Dominion said about Fox in court filings.
As part of Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox, the company introduced internal company exchanges allegedly showing that several Fox hosts, including Carlson and Laura Ingraham, had their doubts about false allegations about the election, but still went ahead with airing those claims.
Exchanges submitted to the court by Dominion also show that contrary to what he portrayed on his television show, Carlson wrote text messages about his dislike for then-President Donald Trump. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson wrote in January 2021, CNN reported. “I truly can’t wait.”
Carlson also said in texts that he found Trump’s behavior after the 2020 elections to be “disgusting.”
Carlson has been the face of the namesake show Tucker Carlson Tonight since 2016. The network will reportedly have a variety of hosts fill in for Carlson’s slot now that he’s gone. The former host is also facing a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former producer at Fox News, over alleged misogynistic and discriminatory conduct at the workplace, according to the New York Times.
When asked for comment, representatives for Fox directed Fortune to the network’s press release announcing Carlson’s departure.
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Prarthana Prakash