Two well-known cable news hosts found themselves unemployed today. Tucker Carlson, the highest-rated host on Fox News and Don Lemon, a fixture at CNN, found themselves in similar situations.
Fox News, in an brief statement that sent shockwaves through the cable news industry, suddenly announced that it and Carlson had mutually agreed to part ways. Fox announced that Carlson’s last show on the network had aired last Friday and that the 8 p.m EST time slot would be filled, at least for now, by a series of Fox hosts until a permanent replacement is selected. Carlson’s program was the highest rated for Fox and consistently led among cable channels in the ratings for the time period.
Carlson’s name figured prominently in the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox, which was settled with Fox agreeing to pay Dominion $787.5 million. Carlson will be especially remembered for an email that was presented as evidence in the lawsuit in which he privately professed to despising Donald Trump while consistently telling his Fox audience what a wonderful person and leader he through Trump to be. His name is sure to come up in additional lawsuits, such as the pending defamation suit against Fox by iSmartmatic.
Carlson did not have an immediate comment on the cancellation of his program and employment by Fox. He has become increasingly influential as a far-right voice in Republican political circles and there had been speculation he might be interested in running for president.
At CNN, it was Lemon who announced that he had been terminated by the cable network. Lemon blasted CNN management for not personally telling him that he was being fired. Lemon said he found out about from his agent after completing his on-air appearance today. Lemon did not hint at future employment prospects.
A CNN biography of Lemon said that in addition to co-anchoring CNN’s morning program, Lemon served as a correspondent across CNN programming in the U.S., based at the network’s New York bureau. Lemon joined CNN in September 2006 and served as anchor of “Don Lemon Tonight” in prime time for more than eight years.
In radio and television, it is common for employees to be terminated with little or no advance warning, with firings often taking place only after an individual has completed the day’s appearance. This process is used to prevent the person being fired from making on-the-air comments about the termination.
