KEY POINTS
- Fox Corporation’s shares plunged as much as 5.4% Monday
- A stock market expert believes it will take time for Fox’s shares to recover
- Fox announced Tucker Carlson made his final broadcast on the network Friday
Financial woes are piling up for Fox Corporation, the owner of the controversial cable news channel Fox News.
Fox’s Class A shares closed 2.9% lower Monday after falling as much as 5.4%, following the media giant’s announcement that it is parting ways with its popular primetime host Tucker Carlson.
The announcement of Carlson’s abrupt exit wiped out more than $500 million from Fox’s market value, Bloomberg reported.
Brandon Nispel, an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said he believes it will likely take time for Fox’s stocks to recover from the latest debacle.
“With the advertising upfronts right around the corner in May, we wonder what Fox is going to tell advertisers and how it will fill the gap in terms of programming and viewership,” Nispel said, according to Bloomberg.
Joseph Bonner, a senior securities analyst at Argus Research, told CBS News that the financial impact of Carlson leaving the network might be minimal in the near term, but there could be an issue “if the ratings really crater.”
Bonner added that Fox’s financial recovery would depend on Carlson’s successor and their performance in the timeslot.
In a short statement Monday, Fox News thanked Carlson for his “service to the network” and said his hit television program “Tucker Carlson Tonight” had its final broadcast last Friday. It did not offer an explanation for his ouster.
Carlson’s program will be replaced with an interim show called “Fox News Tonight” until his successor in the 8 p.m. timeslot is named, Fox added.
The controversial top-rated host began his work at Fox News as a contributor in 2009. Carlson was a co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend” from 2012 to 2016 before his primetime evening show debuted in November 2016.
According to the latest Nielsen ratings, excluding sports, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” is the top-rated primetime cable TV show, with an audience that at times exceeded 3.7 million viewers.
Carlson’s exit came a few days after Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the media company in a $1.6 billion defamation case over Fox News’ reporting of the 2020 presidential election.
In March, hundreds of pages of testimony, including private text messages and emails from top Fox News personalities and executives, were unsealed as part of Dominion’s lawsuit against the cable news channel.
A private text message sent by Carlson to an unidentified person was publicized, showing his discontent with former President Donald Trump.
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Carlson said in his text message, according to NBC News.
“I hate him passionately… I can’t handle much more of this,” Carlson added.
Fox News is not yet off the hook as it still faces a separate defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, which also accuses the company of peddling false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Smartmatic is seeking at least $2.7 billion in damages from Fox.
