Fox News announced on Friday that they have canceled Lou Dobbs’s show on Fox Business, ending the highest-rated program on the business network.
Dobbs, who is a ally of former President Donald Trump who had theories about election fraud following his loss last year against Joe Biden, hosted the evening show for a decade.
Dobbs began hosting his Fox program in 2011 and became more popular during the Trump administration. The president and other White House officials appeared regularly on the program, which elevated the administration’s right-wing views on a range of topics.
People say the decision to end Dobbs’ program was under consideration before the legal issues with Smartmatic arose.
“As we said in October, Fox News Media regularly considers programming changes and plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business,” the representative said in a statement. “This is part of those planned changes. A new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”
When Dobb’s arrived at Fox News, he immediately was noticed by questioning the U.S. citizenship of then-President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii.
Dobbs’ program typically averaged around 300,000 viewers a night in the 7 p.m. Eastern hour, the largest audience on any business news channel. But his program was a loss leader for Fox Business Network as major advertisers steered clear of it, likely out of fear of consumer boycotts.
The replacement for “Lou Dobbs Tonight” will be announced soon, Fox News stated. The show last aired on Friday, with a guest host sitting in for Dobbs, who had no immediate statement.
Sources: The Hill, Newsmax, The Daily Wire; Photo: redstate.com
