Fox Shares Drop By 5% After Announcing Carlson’s Exit

•CNN fires Don Lemon

Fox Corporation shares dropped yesterday, after the media company said in a terse comment that it was parting ways with star host, Tucker Carlson.

According to CBS News, shares of Fox dropped more than five per cent, to as low as $29.27 per share.

Also yesterday, Don Lemon announced that he has been fired from his anchor role at CNN.

Carlson, whose last show was on Friday, April 21, is leaving Fox News even as he remains a top-rated host for the network, drawing 334,000 viewers in the coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic in the 8 p.m. slot for the week ended April 20, according to AdWeek.

That was more than twice the audience of his competitors at CNN and MSNBC in the same hour, and also represented a bigger audience than other Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham.

Carlson’s abrupt departure comes less than a week after Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the company in a $1.6 billion defamation case over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

Documents revealed during the case proceedings had unveiled scornful text messages from Carlson about former President Donald Trump, including one that expressed, “I hate him passionately.”

The host’s comments about Fox management that emerged in the Dominion case played a role in his leaving the network, the Washington Post reported, citing a personal familiar with Fox’s thinking.

On his final show on Friday, Carlson gave no indication that it would be his final appearance.

Responses to his departure ranged from glee, with the audience of “The View” reportedly breaking into applause, to disappointment, with Eric Trump tweeting, “What is happening to Fox?”

The departure means that Fox News is losing a top audience draw, coming several years after the network cut ties with Bill O’Reilly, one of its superstars.

O’Reilly left the network in 2017, after sexual harassment claims were filed against him, with Carlson taking his spot in the 8 p.m. hour.

But Carlson’s ratings are far below O’Reilly, who averaged 728,000 viewers ages 25 to 54 in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Hollywood Reporter. By comparison, Carlson’s viewership in that demographic during the first three months of this year averaged 443,000.

At the same time, Carlson is facing allegations from a former employee about the network’s “toxic” work environment. Abby Grossberg, who worked as head of booking on Carlson’s primetime program, claimed last month in court papers that she endured an environment that “subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typecasts religious minorities and belittles their traditions, and demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.”

Grossberg also alleged Fox’s legal team “coerced” her into providing misleading testimony in Dominion’s defamation case.

Meanwhile, Lemon has been terminated from his anchor role at CNN,

The news comes after Variety published a story earlier this month on allegations that he mistreated his female colleagues over the course of his career there, NBC News reported.

And earlier this year, he faced backlash over widely criticised comments he made on-air. Lemon announced the news on Twitter, saying he was informed by his agent that he was being terminated.

“I am stunned,” Lemon wrote. “After 17 years at CNN I would have thought someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly.”

In a tweet, CNN refuted Lemon’s account as “inaccurate.” The network said he was offered a chance to meet with management but, “instead released a statement on Twitter.”

CNN’s CEO, Chris Licht, said the network and Lemon have “parted ways,” according to a memo provided to NBC News yesterday.

“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years,” the statement said. “We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

Lemon has been with CNN since 2006, joining the network after anchoring at NBC Chicago and working as a correspondent for NBC News, the “TODAY” show and “NBC Nightly News.”

Lemon first came under fire in February during a segment on “CNN This Morning” in which he remarked that Republican presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, 51, was no longer in her “prime.”

The comment was made while discussing a suggestion by Haley that candidates over the age of 75 should be subjected to mental competency exams.

“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” Lemon had said. “When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”

When pushed by co-anchor Poppy Harlow, Lemon told her not to “shoot the messenger.”

Licht told employees that Lemon agreed to partake in training following public backlash to his comments. He also told Semafor earlier this month that both CNN and Lemon have “moved on” from the issue.