Tucker Carlson out at Fox News

NEW YORK — Fox News says it has agreed to part ways with Tucker Carlson, its popular and controversial primetime host, less than a week after settling a lawsuit over the network’s 2020 election reporting.

The network said that Carlson’s last program aired Friday.

The news came via statement from the network, which was posted Monday morning by hollywoodreporter.com: “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.”

According to the network, a rotating rotating roster of guest hosts will fill in until a permanent replacement is found.

News of Carlson’s departure came in the wake of the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit settlement with Fox News’ parent company for a reported $787.5 million.

Carlson became Fox’s most popular personality after replacing Bill O’Reilly in Fox’s prime-time lineup in 2016. He’s also consistently drawn headline for controversial coverage, including most recently airing tapes from the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to minimize the impact of the deadly attack.

His name came up during the recently settled case with Dominion Voting Systems, primarily because of email and text messages that were revealed as part of the lawsuit. In some of them, Carlson privately criticized former President Donald Trump, saying he hated him passionately.

A few weeks ago, Carlson devoted his entire show to an interview with Trump.