Tucker Carlson was shocked by the decision to fire him and has still not been told why, according to reports – but his departure could be part of a plan to sell Fox News, sources told DailyMail.com.
The 53-year-old was negotiating the renewal of his Fox News contract through 2029, earning upwards of $20 million a year, and expected it to be renewed, Vanity Fairreported.
Carlson, who joined Fox in 2009 after stints at CNN, PBS and MSNBC, was not told why he was being ousted when CEO Suzanne Scott called him on Monday morning.
Scott told him the decision was made ‘from above.’ The decision was made on Friday night by Lachlan Murdoch, according to multiple reports.
A Fox News source told DailyMail.com: ‘Tucker still hasn’t been given any indication of why he was taken off the air. His producer Justin Wells was ousted too.
‘We believe Rupert wants to sell the company and it’s harder to find an institutional buyer with Tucker as the main star. Tucker gone makes it more of an appealing media company to buy.’
Fox did not give any reason for the departure of their most-watched news anchor, saying on Monday: ‘Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.
‘We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.’
One senior staffer who works closely with his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, told DailyMail.com they were all stunned at the news.
‘No one I know was told about it beforehand. We were blindsided,’ the employee said.
Some have speculated that Carlson’s role in the Dominion voting systems defamation case, which Fox settled last week at a cost of $787.5 million, was a factor.
Carlson’s text messages to his producer embarrassed the network, with the hugely influential conservative declaring he hated Donald Trump ‘passionately’, and describing him as ‘a demonic force, a destroyer’.
He singled out Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell for particular venom, referring to her on November 22, 2020 as a ‘c***’.
He confirmed her claims about Dominion’s vote-switching were nonsense, saying: ‘The software s*** is absurd.’
The same night, he said on his show: ‘We don’t know anything about the software that many say was rigged. We don’t know. We ought to find out.’
Read More: ‘Blindsided’ Tucker Carlson ‘still has been given NO reason why he was FIRED’
