Fox News kicked one of its biggest stars off the air last week. Maria Bartiromo reportedly was removed from network programming after she shared internal directives with the Trump administration. (Bartiromo’s reps deny that she was fired from the network.)
The White House accused Fox News of muzzling MAGA viewpoints, but Bartiromo might well land on her feet: Rumors suggest she could be up for a gig at “60 Minutes,” or perhaps work in the White House press shop.
The network has a habit of minting high-profile conservative personalities — and also of abruptly discarding them. Right-wing messaging and news can change over time, but one constant remains: None of Fox News’ stars are ever bigger than Fox News itself.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Tucker Carlson
Carlson had washed out at CNN and MSNBC before “Tucker Carlson Tonight” took off at Fox News during Donald Trump’s first term. He became known at the network for his “inflammatory monologues on immigrants, Black civil rights activists, vaccines and national identity” and “emerged as one of Fox’s biggest names,” The New York Times said when Carlson was fired in 2023.
He was even said to be a possible GOP presidential contender. But a defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems in the aftermath of the 2020 election revealed that Carlson’s “polemical pro-Trump persona” on air did not always match his behind-the-scenes commentary. “I hate him passionately,” Carlson said in a text revealed during the lawsuit discovery process, per the Times.
Fox News took Carlson off the air in April 2023, a week after the network settled the Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million. He maintained a high profile, hosting an interview show on X. And he made up with Trump, speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
But Carlson remains controversial. He is part of “breakaway MAGA faction increasingly at odds with President Trump” over the Iran war, said Axios. He has also proven divisive within the conservative movement because of commentary “criticizing Israel and flirting with alternative theories about World War II,” said The Hill.
Bill O'Reilly
O’Reilly was perhaps the original Fox News star — launching the show that became known as “The O'Reilly Factor” when the network first aired in October 1996. The “blustery showman” lasted 20 years, becoming a “linchpin of Fox News' primetime lineup and a ratings powerhouse” for the network, NBC News said when the network cut ties in 2017.
The host was undone by repeated allegations of sexual harassment going back to 2002. In one case, O’Reilly reportedly settled with a producer for $9 million. The network also paid out $13 million to a group of five women who “claimed they were victims of lewd comments, verbal abuse or unwanted sexual advances,” said NBC News.
The network let him go with apparent reluctance. O’Reilly “has been the undisputed king of cable news — and for good reason,” fill-in host Dana Perino said on air the night his departure was announced, per NBC. These days he hosts the “Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis” podcast and appears on NewsNation programming.
Glenn Beck
Beck burned brightly and then burned out fast during his two-year tenure at Fox. His show debuted the day before President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, and the new host soon took viewers on a “roller-coaster ride” that “incorporated conspiracy theories, wild-eyed accusations and predictions of doom,” NPR said in 2011.
It made a splash, but by the time he left Fox News his “ratings were declining” and “hundreds” of advertisers had withdrawn from the show. Beck remained active in conservative media, founding Blaze Media.
Shepard Smith
Unlike the previous figures on this list, Smith was not known as a pundit or opinion commentator. But his departure was notable.
He spent 23 years with Fox News and was an anchor for the network’s more traditional news-side programming. That made him an “outlier” at Fox News, The Associated Press said, when Smith “abruptly” walked away from his contract in 2019.
Smith had often “given tough reports debunking statements made by Trump and his supporters,” which drew a backlash both from the president and from Fox News viewers, said the AP. “If you feel like the Fox viewers were getting mis- or disinformation, I was there to make sure that they got it straight,” Smith said to PBS journalist Christiane Amanpour in 2021, per The Hollywood Reporter. Smith moved to CNBC. His show there was canceled in 2022.
Roger Ailes
Ailes created Fox News in 1996. He was a “former top adviser to Republican presidents” who grew the fledgling news network into a “must for any Republican candidate seeking major office,” The Wall Street Journal said when Ailes resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal in 2016.
The network “toppled CNN” as the cable news ratings leader six years after it launched, said the Journal. It was not enough to save the career of Ailes, who departed weeks after former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit saying he retaliated after she “rebuffed his advances.” Ailes “made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country,” Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a newsroom address about the departure, per the Journal. Ailes died the next year.
