In what may be the wildest day in cable news history, two star personalities are leaving their high-profile jobs.
Were they fired? Did they quit? What happened?
All those questions are still being sorted out.
But the cable news landscape shifted noticeably in a matter of an hour.
It all started when Fox News put out a statement Monday morning that said they and Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular personality and host of the highest-rating prime-time show on cable, were parting ways.
As that news rocked the media world, another bombshell dropped. Don Lemon took to Twitter to announce he had been terminated by CNN.
Or was he?
CNN Communications put out a tweet that said, “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
What a wild morning.
Let’s start with Carlson.
Just a week after Fox News settled its lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems by agreeing to pay Dominion $787.5 million, Fox parted ways with the prime-time star who played a prominent role in why Dominion was suing Fox News in the first place. Carlson was one of the hosts whose shows helped spread false conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election.
He is out immediately. His final show was last Friday. Fox News put out a statement that said, “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
The news even stunned those inside the network. The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison reported that one staffer at Fox News told them, “We’re just learning of this like everyone else, total surprise on my end.”
Another on-air personality told the Post: “This is major. It sends a message that even the guy with the highest ratings of all, by a long shot, doesn’t get to survive this disaster.”
Carlson regularly drew nearly 3 million people a show — not huge in the grand scheme of the country, but significant in the cable news world. And his influence among his loyal Fox News viewers was unquestionable.
While Carlson’s role in the Dominion case — including embarrassing and critical comments about Fox and Donald Trump that became public in pretrial discoveries — could have led to his leaving the network, there’s another lawsuit that could be more problematic.
Abby Grossberg, a former booking producer at Fox News, claimed Carlson’s show had a toxic misogynistic and discriminatory workplace. She filed a lawsuit in March and was since fired by Fox News.
Carlson’s executive producer Justin Wells also is leaving the network.
Whatever led to his departure, it’s a stunning end to Carlson’s career at the conservative network. He has hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight” since 2016. He signed off his show last Friday saying, “We’ll be back on Monday.”
But it’s Monday, and he won’t be back.
Shortly after that news broke, Lemon tweeted, “I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”
Lemon added, “It is clear that there are some larger issues at play.”
He did not say what those “larger issues” were.
CNN Communications said Lemon’s statement was inaccurate, but CNN chief Chris Licht put out a memo to staff that said he and Lemon had parted ways. He added, “Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”
While the news caught many by surprise, perhaps it should not have been totally unexpected. It seemed as if Lemon was on thin ice for a while now, especially after a recent backlash for comments made about women, specifically Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old former governor of South Carolina.
Lemon said on air that Haley “isn’t in her prime, sorry,” adding, “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
Lemon apologized for his comments, underwent corporate training and was suspended.
The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum, John Koblin and Benjamin Mullin reported, “Allies of Mr. Lemon had hoped he would turn the page from the incident. But executives at CNN gradually concluded that his future at CNN had become untenable, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because the internal discussions were sensitive. In recent weeks, CNN’s bookers had discovered that some guests did not want to appear on-air with Mr. Lemon, and research on the morning show reviewed by CNN executives found that his popularity with audiences had fallen, one of the people said.”
Still, Lemon had co-hosted the morning show on Monday, just hours before he was dismissed from the network.
Lemon had hosted a 10 p.m. Eastern show on CNN since 2014, but recently moved to co-host a new morning show with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. That show — “CNN Mornings” — will continue.
Media reporter Brian Stelter reported on Twitter that both Carlson and Lemon have, in Stelter’s words, “retained the famously aggressive entertainment lawyer Bryan Freedman.”
Looks like these firings, partings or whatever you want to call them are long from over.
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
