The ouster followed Fox News's massive $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, ahead of which some of Carlson's private messages about the network were revealed in court documents. Carlson was also at the heart of a discrimination lawsuit and Fox Corporation Chair Rupert Murdoch was beginning to think his primetime host had gone too far in his conspiratorial coverage of the January 6 riot, sources told The Los Angeles Times.
In their statement Monday, Fox News didn't say why it and Tucker Carlson "agreed to part ways," only that, "We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor." A spokesperson didn't respond to Insider's request for comment on the timing of his departure. Carlson's agent also didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.
Carlson apparently had no idea that his show Friday would be his last. As he ate pizza with the Pennsylvania delivery man who thwarted a fleeing suspect, his final words were: "We'll be back on Monday. In the meantime, have the best weekend with the ones that you love, and we'll see you then."
The abrupt nature of the ouster was echoed in a report from The New York Times, which said the anchor was told Monday morning without any heads up.
The producers of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" were still planning the evening's broadcast, fellow former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said Monday on his show "No Spin News."
"They were in the middle of that," O'Reilly said of the planning, and, "boom: Tucker Carlson is history at the Fox News Channel. That's how fast it came. I know he didn't want to go out this way. I don't even know if he knows what the inner decision-making was."
After a decade-plus career at the network, Tucker Carlson was let go just 10 minutes before Fox News released a statement announcing his departure, sources told The Wall Street Journal.