Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs’ show; pro-Trump host
not expected to be back on air
By STEPHEN
BATTAGLIOSTAFF WRITER
FEB. 5,
2021 3:10 PM PT
Fox News
Media has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the program hosted by television’s
staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in
the 2020 election, The Times has learned.
Dobbs’
program, which airs twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business
Network, will have its final airing Friday, according to a Fox News
representative who confirmed the cancellation. Starting next week, the program
will be called “Fox Business Tonight,” with rotating substitute hosts Jackie
DeAngelis and David Asman, who filled in for Dobbs on Friday.
Dobbs, 75,
remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on
the company’s networks again. In addition to his Fox Business Network program,
he occasionally turned up 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 the hosts perpetuated
lies and disinformation about Smartmatic’s role in the election, damaging its
business and reputation.
But people
familiar with discussions say the decision to end Dobbs’ program was under
consideration before the legal issues with Smartmatic arose. (Fox News said it
stands by its 2020 election coverage and will “defend this meritless lawsuit in
court.”)
“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.”
The network
has been reevaluating its programming on Fox News and Fox Business Network
since the fall and implemented a number of program and host changes in
anticipation of President Biden’s administration entering the White House.
Fox News
recently hired former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow with the intention 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 daytime lineup and moved one of its high-profile news
anchors, Martha MacCallum, out of her 7 p.m. Eastern time slot. Fox News has
turned the hour into an opinion program with rotating hosts until a permanent
one is named.
After
leading in the ratings through most of 2020, Fox News had fallen behind CNN and
MSNBC since the election, as conservative viewers have tuned out. The network’s
competitive position has improved in the last two weeks as the number of casual
viewers that CNN often attracts in intense news cycles has begun to subside.
The
decision on Dobbs — whose views are often incendiary — indicates that Fox News
is considering the proper balance of commentary and news to satisfy
conservative viewers, who turn to it as an alternative to so-called mainstream
media outlets, while not alienating less ideological voters who make up a
significant part of its audience.
But viewers
should not expect a major shift as Dobbs’ hour probably will be filled with a
conservative opinion host.
Dobbs, who
was signed to Fox News by former Chief Executive Roger Ailes in 2011, has long
been the company’s most outspoken supporter of Trump’s economic and immigration
policies. In the weeks after the election, he expressed anger on his program
that the Republican Party did not do more to act on the former president’s
claims that the election was rigged in favor of Biden.
Dobbs also
gave free rein to Trump lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell to push
conspiracy theories about the election that were either rejected or never
presented in court. Giuliani and Powell also are defendants in the Smartmatic
defamation suit.
On his Nov.
30 show, Dobbs told Powell he believed Trump needed to take “drastic action,
dramatic action to make certain that the integrity of this election is
understood or lack of it, the crimes that have been committed against him and
the American people. And if the Justice Department doesn’t want to do it, if
the FBI cannot do it, then we have to find other resources within the federal government.”
Dobbs has
long been a provocateur. His strident anti-immigration views led to his 2009
departure from CNN, where for years he was a signature talent 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 waves by questioning the U.S.
citizenship of then-President 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,
probably out of fear of consumer boycotts.
Stephen
Battaglio writes about television and the media business for the Los Angeles
Times out of New York. His coverage of the television industry has appeared in
TV Guide, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, Fortune, the Hollywood
Reporter, Inside.com and Adweek. He is also the author of three books about
television, including a biography of pioneer talk show host and producer David
Susskind.
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