Tucker Carlson, Fox News' most popular host, out at network

Fox News said Monday that it is parting ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, whose stew of grievances and political theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection had grown to define the network in recent years and influence GOP politics.

Fox News said Monday that it is parting ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, whose stew of grievances and political theories about Russia and the Jan. 6 insurrection had grown to define the network in recent years and influence GOP politics.

Fox offered no explanation for the stunning move, saying that the last broadcast of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" aired last Friday.

Shares of Fox Corp. slid 4 per cent within seconds of the announcement of Carlson's departure.

The break comes less than a week after Fox agreed to pay $787 million to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over the network's airing of false claims following the 2020 presidential election. Carlson was also recently named in a lawsuit by a former Fox producer who said the show had a cruel and misogynistic workplace.

Meanwhile, CNN axed its own controversial anchor, Don Lemon, part of a one-day bloodletting in cable television news.

Carlson, who worked at both CNN and MSNBC earlier in his career, ditched his bow-tie look and quickly became Fox's most popular personality after replacing Bill O'Reilly in the network's prime-time lineup in 2016.

His populist tone about elites out to get average Americans rang true with Fox's predominantly conservative audience, even leading to talk about him becoming a political candidate himself one day.