Fox News has canceled Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and will replace him with a rotating group of hosts.
Dobbs, one of Donald Trump’s steadfast defenders, was among the defendants named in election systems company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit. The suit, filed on Thursday, claims that Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Judge Jeanine Pirro, along with guests Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, spread falsehoods that the company rigged the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“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 – this is part of those planned changes,” a Fox News Media spokesperson said. “A new 5 PM program will be announced in the near future.”
Dobbs’ will be replaced by a show called Fox Business Tonight, with Jackie DeAngelis hosting on Monday and Tuesday and David Asman hosting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It will then repeat at 7 PM ET.
Dobbs has been a signature figure at the business network, drawing its highest ratings. The channel touted the fact that his 5 PM ET show outpaced its CNBC competition last year, drawing an average of 305,000 total viewers, and that even a rebroadcast at 7 PM ET beat Shepard Smith’s recently launched newscast.
The Los Angeles Times first reported on Dobbs’ cancellation.
In the aftermath of the election, Dobbs advanced the false idea that Smartmatic had tied to Hugo Chavez, the deceased leader of Venezuela, and on his Nov. 18 broadcast, falsely tried to connect the company to George Soros. Dobbs said, “After all the chairman of Smartmatic is very very close to none other than Mr. Soros. So how do you think they’re going to cheat? They’re going to cheat democratic they’re going to cheat left wing they’re going to cheat radical that’s what they are; left-wing radicals.”
In December, after Smartmatic fired off a legal threat, Dobbs ran a segment that was a fact-check of claims that had made on his show.
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