Feb 5, 2021 - Economy

Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs’ show

Lou Dobbs on the set of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" in September 2019.

Lou Dobbs on the set of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" in September 2019. Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images

Fox News has cancelled its business network's “Lou Dobbs Tonight" and will air the program's final show on Friday night, the LA Times first reported.

Why it matters: Dobbs, former President Trump’s favorite TV host, helped promote the baseless assertions of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Conservative-leaning media companies, including Fox, are in the throes of navigating a post-Trump landscape.

The big picture: The cancellation comes after Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, some of the network's hosts — including Dobbs — and members of Trump's entourage for launching a "disinformation campaign" against the company.

What they're saying: "...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 — this is part of those planned changes," a Fox News Media spokesperson told Axios.

  • “Lou Dobbs is and was great,” Trump said in a statement, per the New York Times. “Nobody loves America more than Lou. He had a large and loyal following that will be watching closely for his next move, and that following includes me.”

The state of play: Instead of Dobbs' show at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST on the Fox Business Network, the slots will be filled starting Monday with "Fox Business Tonight," which will be hosted by Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman on a rotating basis.

  • Dobbs, 75, remains under contract at Fox News.

Go deeper: The right-wing media decoupling

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