Tucker Carlson Is Leaving Fox News, Network Announces

Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have decided to part ways, the network announced in a statement Monday.

Carlson's final broadcast of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" aired Friday. The show "Fox News Tonight" is set to air as an interim show led by rotating hosts until his successor in the 8 p.m. time slot is named, Fox said.

"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," Fox News said in a statement.

Carlson joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009 and served as a co-host of "Fox and Friends Weekend' from 2012 to 2016. His eponymous nightly show debuted in November 2016. He moved into the 8 p.m. slot in April 2017.

News of Carlson's departure from Fox News comes days after the network reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. The voting technology company filed a lawsuit against the cable news giant in March 2021, accusing it of knowingly airing false statements claiming Dominion helped to rig the 2020 presidential election against former President Donald Trump.

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The company specified 20 broadcasts that it said were defamatory, including a Jan. 26, 2021, episode of Carlson's show featuring MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.

Dominion and Fox News reached a settlement agreement just before lawyers for the two sides were set to deliver opening statements in Delaware state court.

The company's lawsuit against Fox laid bare the behind-the-scenes discussions taking place among Fox's top executives, producers and hosts, Carlson among them, after President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election.

In an exchange with members of his staff in early January 2021, Carlson wrote, "We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait," and "I hate him passionately."

Carlson also called the former president "a demonic force, a destroyer" in a text message to his producer following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Other messages showed Carlson and his fellow primetime hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham insulting Trump's lawyers, namely Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, about the unfounded claims that the election was stolen.

Carlson has been a fixture of cable news for decades, hosting shows on CNN, MSNBC and PBS before he joined Fox News. He also co-founded the conservative website The Daily Caller, which launched in 2010. Carlson stepped down from day-to-day oversight of the website after landing his show on Fox News and sold his stake in the outlet in 2020.