Fox News has canceled ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’, the program presented by television’s strongest supporter of Donald Trump and his allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Times has learned.
According to a Fox News representative who confirmed the cancellation, Dobbs’ program, which airs twice every night at 5pm and 7pm on the Fox Business Network, will be broadcast on Fox Business Network. Starting next week, the show is called ‘Fox Business Tonight’, featuring rotating replacement hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman, who filled out for Dobbs on Friday.
Dobbs, 75, remains under contract with Fox News, but he is unlikely to appear on the company’s networks again. In addition to his Fox Business Network program, he occasionally appeared on the Fox News Channel as a commentator.
The cancellation comes a day after voting software company Smartmatic filed a $ 2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News and three of its hosts – Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. The company claims that the hosts continued to lie and misinformation about Smartmatic’s role in the election, damaging its business and reputation.
But people familiar with the discussions say the decision to end Dobbs’ program was considered before the legal issues with Smartmatic arose. (Fox News said it stands by its 2020 election coverage and will ‘defend this case without merit in court’.)
“As we said in October, Fox News Media is regularly considering programming changes and there are plans to apply new formats after the election, including to Fox Business,” the representative said in a statement. ‘It’s part of the planned changes. A new 17:00 program will be announced soon. ”
Lou Dobbs presents ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight’ at Fox Business Network Studios in 2018.
(Steven Ferdman / Getty Images)
The network has reevaluated the programming of Fox News and Fox Business Network since the fall and implemented a number of changes to the program and host in anticipation of government President Joe Biden’s entry into the White House.
Fox News recently hired former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow with the goal of giving him a daily program. The former longtime CNBC host immediately becomes a candidate to replace Dobbs on Fox Business Network.
Last month, Fox News shook up its executive and moved one of its notable news anchors, Martha MacCallum, out of its eastern time slot. Fox News turned the hour into a rotating hosts opinion show until a permanent one was appointed.
After Fox News led most of 2020, they have fallen behind CNN and MSNBC since the election, as conservative viewers have suggested. The network’s competitive position has improved over the past two weeks as the number of informal viewers that CNN regularly attracts in intense news circles has begun to decline.
The decision on Dobbs – whose views are often burning – indicates that Fox News is considering the right balance between commentary and news to satisfy conservative viewers, who use them as an alternative to so-called mainstream media, while not alienating less ideological voters. which forms a significant part of the audience.
Viewers, however, should not expect a major shift, as Dobbs’ hour is likely to be filled with a conservative opinion leader.
Dobbs, who was signed to Fox News by his former CEO Roger Ailes in 2011, is the company’s most outspoken supporter of Trump’s economic and immigration policies. In the weeks after the election, he expressed anger over his program that the Republican Party is no longer doing to act on the former president’s claims that the election is in Biden’s favor.
Dobbs also gave free rein to Trump attorneys Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell to drive conspiracy theories about the election being rejected or never presented in court. Giuliani and Powell are also accused in the defamation of Smartmatic.
On his Nov. 30 show, Dobbs told Powell that he believed Trump should take drastic action, dramatic action to make sure the integrity of this election is understood or that these are not the crimes against him. and the American people were not committed. And if the Department of Justice does not want to do that, if the FBI can not do that, we need to find other resources within the federal government. ”
Dobbs has long been a provocateur. His hard-line anti-immigration stance led to his departure from CNN in 2009, where he was a distinctive talent for many years and a pioneer of TV business news with his program “Moneyline”. He won a Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1987 stock market crash.
When he arrived at Fox News, he immediately made headlines by questioning the US citizenship of then-President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii.
Dobbs’ program averaged about 300,000 viewers per night in the 19 hours of Eastern Hour, the largest audience on any business channel. But his program was a loss-making leader for Fox Business Network, as major advertisers evaded it, likely for fear of consumer boycotts.