- Fox News loses more than $500 million in value after parting ways with star host Tucker Carlson
- The announcement follows a settlement between the right-wing media outlet and Dominion Voting Systems
- Fox agreed to pay $787 million and acknowledged that its coverage of the 2020 elections was false
Fox News lost more than $500 million in value after announcing that it was parting ways with its star host Tucker Carlson following a massive $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
The Monday announcement raised questions regarding the future of the right-wing media outlet as well as the network's prime-time lineup. Carlson, whose last show aired on Apr. 21, parted ways with Fox despite being a top-rated host. He drew in 334,000 viewers in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic in the 8:00 p.m. slot for the week that ended on Apr. 20.
Tucker Carlson Leaving Fox News
That number was more than twice the audience that Carlson's competitors at CNN and MSNBC got in the same hour. Furthermore, it represented a bigger audience than other right-wing media hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as per CBS News.
Fox's shares dropped 0.6% (17 cents) on Tuesday, going down to a value of $29.74, and has seen a stock decline of 3.5% since the close of trading on Friday. Carlson's sudden departure from Fox came less than a week after the settlement in the case between the right-wing media outlet and Dominion.
Dominion initially filed a lawsuit against Fox that was seeking $1.6 billion over alleged defamation of the complainant. The issue at hand was the right-wing media outlet's coverage of the 2020 elections.
The financial impact of the situation on Fox News may be minimal in the short term due to advertisers booking their slots in advance. However, if the "ratings really crater," the media outlet could face an issue, said a senior securities analyst at Argus Research, Joseph Bonner.
A Slew of Issues
Carlson was known for embracing conservative issues and delivering his views on issues using a style that made his "Tucker Carlson Tonight" prime-time show successful. According to Reuters, Dominion's lawsuit also noted that the star host allowed debunked election-fraud claims regarding the voting technology firm to air on his show.
Dominion also claimed that Carlson cast doubts on the possibility of those claims in private messages later seen in legal filings. The host was also key to further legal battles that Fox is facing, including one lawsuit that Carlson's former head of booking, Abby Grossberg, filed.
The parting ways of Fox and its star host came as Carlson's staff culture was also facing scrutiny. This resulted from Grossberg claiming that she was subjected to sexist treatment while working for Carlson. Furthermore, messages that the lawsuit revealed showed the Fox host calling Sidney Powell a "c**t."
However, a person familiar with the matter who remained anonymous said that Carlson's comments regarding his colleagues at Fox, which were also partly revealed in the case with Dominion, played a role in the development, said the Washington Post.
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