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After Tucker Carlson, Who Else Was on Fox News Chopping Block?

After Tucker Carlson’s firing, the internet speculated about the fates of other Fox News talking heads in the wake of the Dominion lawsuit settlement.

Published April 26, 2023

 (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
Image Via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

After television host Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News on April 24, 2023, for undisclosed reasons, many online speculated about whether his termination indicated wider staffing changes across the network. 

Twitter user @daybreaker claimed that, alongside Carlson, the network also removed hosts Dan Bongino, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro from their jobs, 

Carlson's departure came a week after Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over the network's dissemination of 2020 election misinformation; Carlson also was exposed for disparaging his colleagues. Abby Grossberg, a former booker, also filed a lawsuit against Fox News alleging sexism on Carlson's show. 

Many speculated that the recent firings were a reaction to the Dominion lawsuit, as some of the network hosts were responsible for airing conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems and its alleged role in manipulating the 2020 presidential election results. 

So what happened to the other on-air talent? Out of the remaining three in @daybreaker's tweet, only one had been fired as of this writing. 

Dan Bongino

Bongino, who is the host of "Unfiltered With Dan Bongino" and considered to be one of the most right-leaning commentators on Fox News' roster, was reported to have been fired by April 20, days after the Dominion settlement. According to Variety, he was not a prominent part of the lawsuit but he was known for amplifying controversial views like claiming the Democrats were orchestrating a coup during the 2020 presidential elections. 

Bongino described his departure as amicable, saying, "There's no acrimony. This wasn't some WWE brawl that happened. We just couldn't come to terms on an extension."

Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro

As of this writing, neither Bartiromo nor Pirro have been fired. The most recent episode of "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" aired on April 23, 2023. 

Pirro was most recently seen on the April 24, 2023, episode of "The Five," cutting off one of her co-hosts as he seemingly attempted to talk about Carlson:

GREG GUTFELD: When you think about Joe, we were having this conversation in 2019. And everybody said he was already past his prime. Shout-out to Don Lemon. But who would think we would have [this] the same -- I know. Big media news today, huh?

JEANINE PIRRO: Yeah, no. Keep talking.

GUTFELD: Don Lemon. Wow.

PIRRO: Keep talking.

GUTFELD: Who would've seen that coming?

[...] 

JASON CHAFFETZ: I think somebody like Susan Rice, who's got strong credentials with Obama and with Biden, looks at that and says, "Why aren't I the president?" She might run.

DANA PERINO: You think Susan Rice is going to take on Kamala Harris for the nomination?

CHAFFETZ: I think there's a chance of that.

PERINO: I'll watch it.

GUTFELD: So in 2024, it'll be Susan Rice versus Tucker Carlson.

JEANINE PIRRO: Okay, up next: Bill Maher ripping into liberals for failing to call out the crime crisis in Democrat cities.

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly also asked on her podcast in reaction to Carlson's firing: "If this is a reaction to the Dominion lawsuit, why is Maria Bartiromo there? Why is Jeanine Pirro still there? Why is Suzanne Scott still there? The CEO of Fox News." 

In addition to spreading misinformation on air, the court files revealed that Bartiromo texted her disappointment over the election results, saying, she "[wanted] to see massive fraud exposed." However, Grossberg's March 2023 lawsuit against Fox News alleged that she and Bartiromo had been pressured by Fox News' lawyers to take the blame for repeated airing of conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems. 

Pirro was also named as central to the Dominion lawsuit for helping "spread the verifiably false yet devastating lies against Dominion." Among airing other claims, she had invited former U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign attorney, Sidney Powell, to her show where Powell falsely claimed that computer codes were overwritten to manipulate Dominion software and evidence showed votes were flipped from Trump to Joe Biden. 

Back in 2019, Pirro did confirm that she had been briefly suspended from Fox News. She had made anti-Muslim comments against Rep. Ilhan Omar, questioning whether Omar could be loyal to America because she wore a hijab.

As of this writing, Pirro and Bartiromo are still employed at Fox News. We will update this post if any new information comes to light. 
 

Sources

Barr, Jeremy. "Fox News 'Brain Room' Debunked 2020 Claims. Jeanine Pirro Still Aired Them." Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2023. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/04/03/fox-dominion-jeanine-pirro-brain-room/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Cohen, Marshall and Oliver Darcy. "Tucker Carlson out at Fox News | CNN Business." CNN, 24 Apr. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news/index.html. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Farrell, Maureen. "Fox News Settles Defamation Case With Venezuelan Businessman." The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2023. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/business/fox-news-venezuela-dominion.html. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Folkenflik, David. "Fox's Jeanine Pirro Is Back in the Hot Seat in $1.6 Billion Election Defamation Case." NPR, 30 Sept. 2022. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126286121/fox-news-jeanine-pirro-election-defamation. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

"Fox News Anchor Maria Bartiromo Is Front and Center in Dominion's Defamation Suit." Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-03-09/fox-news-anchor-maria-bartiromo-dominion-defamation-suit-murdoch-trump-election-2020-carlson. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Ibrahim, Nur. "No, Tucker Carlson Has Not Died." Snopes, 25 Apr. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tucker-carlson-death-hoax/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

"Jeanine Pirro Abruptly Cuts to Commercial Break after Co-Host's Apparent Reference to Tucker Carlson's Sudden Departure from the Network." Media Matters for America, 24 Apr. 2023, https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jeanine-pirro-abruptly-cuts-commercial-break-after-co-hosts-apparent-reference-tucker. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Porter, Tom. "One of Trump's Favorite Fox News Hosts Says the Network Wants to Fire Her after She Was Suspended for Anti-Muslim Comments." Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-favorite-jeanine-pirro-claims-fox-plotting-to-fire-her-2019-9. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023.

"Megyn Kelly Asks Why Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and Suzanne Scott Still Work at Fox 'If This Is a Reaction to the Dominion Lawsuit.'" Media Matters for America, 25 Apr. 2023, https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/megyn-kelly-asks-why-maria-bartiromo-jeanine-pirro-and-suzanne-scott-still-work-fox-if. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Steinberg, Brian. "Fox News Parts Ways With Weekend Host Dan Bongino." Variety, 20 Apr. 2023, https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/fox-news-dan-bongino-contract-departure-1235589805/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. 

Nur Nasreen Ibrahim is a reporter with experience working in television, international news coverage, fact checking, and creative writing.