NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative media titan Tucker Carlson and Fox News on Monday “agreed to part ways” effective immediately. Carlson’s last broadcast was April 21, giving the hugely popular host no opportunity to bid farewell to his audience.
An announcement from Fox News shared on social media Monday morning stated that “Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.” The news outlet said it “thank[s] him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” Carlson’s senior executive producer also reportedly left the company.
Carlson began his monumentally popular nightly show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after co-hosting “Fox & Friends Weekend” from 2012 through 2016. Reportedly earning $8 million a year from Fox News, with $30 million in net worth, he attracted a massive audience of around 3.5 million nightly viewers.
Noting that Carlson’s last broadcast with Fox News was on Friday, the media company said subsequent broadcasts in his former time slot will be “helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.”
The news comes after Fox News agreed to an historic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the conservative media outlet’s coverage of allegations pertaining to vote fraud in the 2020 election.
The break-up between Carlson and Fox has sent shockwaves through the political media space. Commentators shared their surprise and disbelief on social media, widely agreeing the news will have a devastating impact on Fox News.
“Wow. Disastrous moment for Fox News,” reacted Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh. “Tucker was by far the most important and relevant figure at the network, and in all of cable news.”
Conservative personality Robby Starbuck called the move “the biggest mistake Fox has ever made.”
“I don’t know the reason for the exit but the timing couldn’t be worse for Fox,” he said.
Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez opined that Carlson “has the ability to create one of the most influential news networks now that he’s broken ties with Fox.”
“Tucker doesn’t need Fox, but they most certainly need him,” she said.
Tucker has the ability to create one of the most influential news networks now that he’s broken ties with Fox.
He doesn’t need Fox, but they most certainly need him.
— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) April 24, 2023
The reasons for Carlson’s split with Fox News remain unclear. Evidence suggests the news was sudden, since Carlson signed off from his Friday show by telling viewers he’d “be back on Monday.”
Author Justin Hart said that according to his sources, “Tucker was all set to go live tonight.”
“He probably had plans to talk about the lawsuit and clear his name,” he said, in reference to the Dominion defamation settlement. “Producers were prepping guests and slots of Monday’s show. Corporate nixed the idea and Tucker up and quit!”
Speculation about Carlson’s next moves have included ideas he might launch a bid for the U.S. presidency in 2024, something previously floated last year before Carlson himself shot down the suggestion.
“The most important voice on the right just left the biggest media company on the right,” reacted Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing on Monday. “Whatever [Tucker Carlson] does next, he’ll succeed. “
“If that something is running for president, the entire game just changed,” he said. Responding to queries as to whether Carlson might join the Daily Wire lineup, Boreing said the top conservative personality likely “already has a plan” but joked that his news outfit would “break out the big novelty checkbook for him if he doesn’t.”
Shortly before news of his separation from Fox, Carlson gave a speech for the Heritage Foundation’s 50-year-anniversary gala in which he argued that the disagreements between conservative and leftist positions on issues like transgenderism and abortion represent the difference between good and evil.
“None of this makes sense in conventional political terms,” he said, arguing that the federal government has decided its “goal is to destroy things” and that “what you’re watching is not a political movement, it’s evil.”
Tucker Carlson During Speech At @Heritage Explains How To Understand What The People Wrecking Our Country Are Doing
“None of this makes sense in conventional political terms.”
“When people. . .decide that the goal is to destroy things, destruction for its own sake, ‘hey let’s… pic.twitter.com/qFZOZtjAvg
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 22, 2023
“The side of good is characterized by calmness, tranquility, peace, whatever you want to call it, lack of conflict, cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to godliness. It’s true, it is,” Carlson said. “And evil is characterized by their opposites. Violence, hate, disorder, division, disorganization, and filth. So if you are all in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes, what you’re really advocating for is evil.”
Carlson called on listeners to carve out at least 10 minutes per day to pray for the future of the nation.
A prominent voice in the American conservative movement, Carlson has spoken out forcefully from his platform on a number of highly controversial issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to alleged vote fraud and the January 6 riot, frequently taking positions farther to the right than many other mainstream Republicans.
For instance, Carlson has argued that U.S. intervention in Ukraine is tantamount to a proxy war with Russia without congressional approval. He also aired exclusive footage of the January 6 riot and concluded that the events of that day were wildly misrepresented by the media and Democratic politicians as protesters including the so-called “Qanon Shaman” appear to have been effectively given a tour of the premises by Capitol police.
Just before the announcement of Carlson’s separation from Fox, in an interview on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki that aired Sunday, far-left congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued in favor of federal regulation to crack down on the popular host for alleged “incitement of violence.”
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” Cortez said. “When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence. Very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with.”
Meanwhile, Carlson isn’t the only major Fox News personality to split with the cable news outlet in recent days. Commentator and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino also left the corporation on Thursday.
Across the political aisle, leftist cable outlet CNN terminated its contract with pundit Don Lemon Monday.