Fox Business has announced that the nightly program Lou Dobbs Tonight has been canceled. The Los Angeles Times reports that Friday was the show’s final episode.
Starting next week, the show will be replaced with a new program called Fox Business Tonight, which will be anchored in rotation by Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman.
Dobbs’ removal from the Fox Business line-up comes amid a $2.7 billion lawsuit served against him and two of his Fox News colleagues, hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, by election technology company Smartmatic. The defamation suit accuses Dobbs, Bartiromo and Pirro of damaging their reputation after spreading disinformation about the company in the wake of the 2020 election.
READ MORE: Voting company sues Fox, Giuliani over election fraud claims
Dobbs, 75, had been a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, including Trump’s plans to build a border wall on the Mexican border, as reported by the Washington Post.
A representative from Fox Business, however, stated that the program and hosting change for Dobbs had been considered well before the lawsuit.
“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.”
READ MORE: ‘Fox & Friends’ panel erupts after Geraldo Rivera blames Trump for inciting violence
Lou Dobbs Tonight was television’s top-rated business show leading up to his removal. According to The Wrap, the nightly 7 p.m. show spent 57 weeks straight as the most-viewed business show, as well as 100 straight weeks at number one in the Nielsen ratings against CNBC, which airs business pitch show Shark Tank in that time slot.
The show had been airing at both 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day. Fox Business stated that Fox Business Tonight will fill the 7 p.m. slot and “a new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”
While it is not clear that Dobbs will definitely return to the air for Fox, he currently remains under contract by the network.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!