Conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson will no longer host his high-profile talk show and his last show was Friday, the company announced in a news release, the week after a nine-figure settlement from the company in a lawsuit related to the 2020 presidential election.
The release said the two parties “have agreed to part ways.” A rotating panel of people will host Fox News Tonight, the release said.
The news of Carlson’s departure comes the week after Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over its hosts’ spreading of disinformation about the company.
Critics of Fox News – and of Trump – rejoiced over the news. “After all Tucker’s lies and defamation, it’s about time,” tweeted former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a member of the Jan. 6 investigative committee.
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Text messages released in March as part of the lawsuit showed Carlson saying privately of Trump, “I hate him passionately,” adding adding that he “can’t handle much more of this” and that he “truly can’t wait” to be able to stop covering Trump.
Over the years, Carlson had become a leading voice on television spreading far-right viewpoints. One of those was the Great Replacement theory, the idea that white people are being intentionally replaced by people of color. That led to the Anti Defamation League to call for his firing.
The news took many people by surprise, perhaps including Carlson himself. He ended Friday’s show by telling viewers, “We’ll be back on Monday.”
