Longtime far-right television host and Fox News mainstay Tucker Carlson has "agreed to part ways" with the conservative news network he's called home for more than a decade, with Fox thanking him "for his service to the network" in a brief press release sent Monday morning. No further details for the departure were provided. Network host Harris Faulkner confirmed the departure shortly after the statement was released.
The surprise announcement comes amidst a tumultuous phase for the network, which recently settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million dollars over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. In text messages released as part of that suit, Carlson, oftentimes Fox's highest-rated broadcaster, was shown to have denigrated former President Donald Trump in private, while simultaneously championing the Trump campaign's disproved election fraud allegations on his show. Carlson has frequently been accused of racism and white nationalism in his broadcasts, and recently aired a selectively-edited suite of videos from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot provided to him exclusively by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that disingenuously framed the attack as a peaceful protest.
According to the network, Carlson's last broadcast of his eponymous show was Friday, April 21, and his time slot will be covered by "rotating FOX news personalities until a new host is named." Carlson's final words on his program were "we'll be back on Monday."