Fox News ousts Tucker Carlson, its most popular host
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Fox News on Monday ousted prime-time host Tucker Carlson, whose stew of grievances and political theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection had grown to define the network in recent years and make him an influential force in GOP politics.
Fox News on Monday ousted prime-time host Tucker Carlson, whose stew of grievances and political theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection had grown to define the network in recent years and make him an influential force in GOP politics.
Fox said that the network and Carlson had "agreed to part ways," but offered no explanation for the stunning move, saying that the last broadcast of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" aired last Friday. Carlson ended the show by saying, "We'll be back on Monday."
The break comes amid a cascade of bad legal news for Fox and Carlson. A week ago, Fox agreed to pay more than US$787 million to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over the network's airing of false claims following the 2020 presidential election -- shortly before Carlson was expected to be called to testify.
CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday aired a report about a man caught up in a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory who said Carlson was "obsessed" with him, and whose lawyer has put Fox on notice of potential litigation. Carlson was also recently named in a lawsuit by a former Fox producer who said the show had a cruel and misogynistic workplace, and that she had been pressured to give misleading testimony in the Dominion case.
Meanwhile, CNN axed its own embattled anchor, Don Lemon, part of a one-day bloodletting in cable television news on Monday. Lemon had been a bad fit with his fellow morning hosts and was forced to apologize to GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley for his comment that she was past her prime.
Carlson, however, had a greater influence, higher viewer count and more shocking exit. He worked at both CNN and MSNBC earlier in his career, then ditched his bow-tie look and quickly became Fox's most popular personality after replacing Bill O'Reilly in the network's prime-time lineup in 2017.
His populist tone about elites who are out to get average Americans rang true with Fox's predominantly conservative audience, even leading to talk about Carlson becoming a political candidate himself one day.
