Tucker Carlson, Worth $370 Million, Reportedly Fired by Rupert Murdoch from Fox News
Fox News’ has made a shockingly abrupt decision to fire its top-rating host Tucker Carlson, and reports suggest that the decision came directly from Fox Corporation chairman, Rupert Murdoch.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” According to The Guardian, the statement revealed that the last episode of Carlson’s program, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was on Friday. Beginning on Monday, the 8 pm ET slot will be hosted by a rotation of personalities until they select a new permanent host, the network said.
The right-wing network told Independent in a statement that it had “agreed to part ways” with Carlson days after it agreed to pay $787.5m to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems. Michael M.Grynbaum from New York Times tweeted that Carlson was informed his show was being axed on Monday morning. This decision was made directly by Murdoch, according to the Los Angeles Times.
NEW: Tucker Carlson was informed *on Monday morning* by Fox News that he was gone from the network, per two sources briefed.
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) April 24, 2023
Not the first time a Fox anchor has abruptly lost their gig, but still notable given Carlson's stature at the network.
Rupert Murdoch’s son and Fox Corporation CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, and Fox News CEO, Suzanne Scott made the decision to fire Carlson on Friday evening, according to the Washington Post. Carlson's firing came less than a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the network for airing false claims that it had conspired to rig the 2020 presidential election. At more than $780 million, this has become the largest publicly disclosed monetary settlement ever in an American defamation action.
Carlson's firing comes in connection to a lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a former senior booking producer on Carlson’s show who claims she faced sexism and a hostile work environment. Grossberg alleges that on her first day of work, pictures of the California Democrat, Nancy Pelosi in a plunging bathing suit were placed on her computer screen and around her workspace. She also alleges she was coerced into giving misleading testimony in the Dominion lawsuit. She released evidence that she said Fox had to turn over in the discovery process.
Fox News had been severely embarrassed in pre-trial court filings by revelations about its coverage in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections. Carlson and fellow hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham privately mocked regular guests, including Donald Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, while continuing to promote their lies and conspiracy theories to their audience. According to court documents, Carlson called Trump a “demonic force” and said that he hated the former president “passionately” in text messages to an unknown Fox employee two days before the January 6 riots. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” he added. “I truly can’t wait.”
The hosts were spared having to testify at trial when Dominion and Fox News reached a last-gasp $787.5 settlement on Tuesday after a jury had already been sworn in. Carlson was not given a chance to say goodbye to the audience whom he had amassed in his years as a prime-time host. The 57-year-old began hosting his nightly Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight in November 2016 in the 7 pm slot. The show was heavily criticized for amplifying racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic, and transphobic themes. In 2018, Carlson told viewers that immigration had made the United States “poorer, dirtier, and more divided.”
The network was still running promos for Carlson’s show Monday morning. According to the Washington Post, it was Carlson’s comments about the Fox management which was revealed during the Dominion lawsuit that sealed his fate. Minutes after news of Carlson’s departure broke, Fox Corporation’s stock price plunged by 4 percent.
Carlson is the richest television host in the world with a net worth of $370 million dollars. He earned $45 million salary each year whie he was working for the Fox network. However, after his abrupt firing he will be compensated with around $25 million.
