Was Tucker Carlson caught off guard by Fox News exit? His final show would suggest so

Tucker Carlson’s sudden departure from Fox News appears to have caught the host off guard – based on comments made during his final show on Friday.

The right-wing network made a shock announcement on Monday that it had “agreed to part ways” with its most-watched primetime host with immediate effect, with Friday marking his last programme on the air.

“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement shared with The Independent.

“We thank him for his service as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

“Mr Carlson’s last programme was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8pm starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.”

Carlson himself is yet to comment on his ousting and no reason has been given for the sudden exit, although it comes just six days after Fox agreed to pay $787m to Dominion Voting Systems over 2020 election lies that were pushed on Carlson’s and other top personalities’ shows.

Based on Carlson’s final ever appearance on his primetime show, he didn’t seem to see his ousting coming.

Closing out his show on Friday, the right-wing commentator cheerily told viewers that “we’ll be back on Monday”.

“What a great way to the end the week,” he said of his last segment.

“That’s it for us for the week, we’ll be back... We’ll be back on Monday – in the meantime have the best weekend with the ones you love. See you then!”

The decision appears to have been sudden on both sides, however, as Fox News was also promoting an interview between Carlson and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to air on Monday night just hours before the bombshell announcement was made.

Last Tuesday, Fox News reached its landmark settlement with Dominion over its $1.6bn defamation lawsuit, which accused the network of amplifying conspiracy theories and false claims that its ballot counting machines had rigged the 2020 election against Donald Trump.

The negotiations went down to the wire, with the settlement coming just moments before opening arguments were expected to begin at trial – a trial where media mogul Rupert Murdoch and many of Fox News’ biggest names including Carlson would have been called to testify.

While the trial was ultimately avoided, court documents filed in the case caused a major embarrassment to the network.

In one especially embarrassing filing, text messages showed Carlson saying he “hates” Mr Trump – an extreme departure from the stance he pushed to his viewers.

Carlson’s name and show cropped up multiple other times in Dominion’s allegations over the election lies.

Fox News’ legal battles over the election lies are still far from over with voting company Smartmatic pursuing a similar suit and former producer Abby Grossberg suling her ex-employee.

Rumours had been swirling that some of the biggest heads at Fox would roll in the aftermath of the Dominion settlement and Dan Bongino was initially ousted last week.

Even before the legal troubles with Dominion, Carlson had become known for pushing extreme far-right conspiracy theories on his primetime show.

Carlson has been with Fox News for the last 14 years, first joining as a contributor before hosting his own primetime evening show Tucker Carlson Tonight from November 2016.

The 57-year-old got the primetime gig after Bill O’Reilly was ousted from the spot – and the network – following a series of allegations of sexual harassment.

Over the next six years, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the most-watched show at Fox News, with 3.5million viewers tuning in every night.