Spencer covered the bombshell news today: Tucker Carlson has left Fox News. His last program was his April 21 broadcast. The longtime host on the network, whose show earned record ratings, is out of a job. The good news for Carlson is that he's smart, has a massive following, and will land on his feet, whether on another network or elsewhere. There's no chance that CNN will hire him or MSNBC will take him back, and I have a feeling OAN and Newsmax can't afford him. He'll probably go the independent route and probably make more money. Yet, did Carlson quit, or was he fired? That's the debate some are having right now.
There's word that Mr. Carlson intended to have an epic episode tonight, where he was reportedly going to delve into the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit and clear his name. He had guests lined up, but the bigwigs at Fox torpedoed the idea, leading to the host quitting. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how things went down, but that hasn't satisfied his viewers. And there's a competing narrative: Carlson would discuss the CBS "60 Minutes" episode on January 6 but quit when producers said it was a no-go.
My sources are telling me: Tucker was all set to go live tonight. He probably had plans to talk about the lawsuit and clear his name. Producers were prepping guests and slots of Monday's show. Corporate nixed the idea and Tucker up and quit!
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) April 24, 2023
I don’t believe he quit
— VK (@vjeannek) April 24, 2023
I have a longtime friend at Fox News. He just texted me that Tucker was planning a segment to destroy the 60 Minutes Epps episode.
— Snoop Bailey (@realsnoopbailey) April 24, 2023
Exec Producer Jennifer Rauchet told him he couldn't run the segment so he quit.
🤔
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) April 24, 2023
The network has just concluded a major legal fight with Dominion Voting Systems, which sued Fox over their continued reports about the 2020 elections and its voting machines allegedly fixing the contest for Democrats. Dominion filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit. The jury had been selected, and opening arguments for a trial that liberal America was lusting for were about to commence before Fox's lawyers decided to fork over the cash to end this legal action. The left hoped this courtroom brawl could end Fox News. Its conclusion visibly irritated some hosts, especially those on CNN.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) had spoken about regulating Fox News, specifically citing host Tucker Carlson. Well, that's no longer necessary. What is also apparent about Carlson is his worth to the network, which has now lost an estimated $930 million in market value since the news of his departure hit the wires (via Business Insider):
Fox Corporation stock fell as much as 5% on Monday and erased $930 million in market value after it was announced that Fox News Media parted ways with host Tucker Carlson.
Shares of the media company recovered slightly and were trading at $29.61, down almost 4% at 12:15 p.m. ET.
The split between Carlson and Fox News comes just one week after the company settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $788 million due to the network's spread of misinformation related to the 2020 Presidential election and unfounded claims of election fraud.
Carlson has long been one of the most popular hosts at Fox News, with the conservative talk show personality's 8pm show consistently being the most watched news show on cable TV.
The better question: is this the end of Fox News?
