Fox News star anchor Tucker Carlson is leaving the air with immediate effect, the American media announced Monday, April 24. Since 2016, he hosted "Tucker Carlson Tonight", a much-watched evening show in the United States on the conservatives' favorite channel.

"Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," the network said in a statement.

Show after show, Tucker Carlson had become one of the most resounding voices in conservative America. The presenter was accused of popularizing conspiracy theories and racists likely, according to some, to lead to dramas.

In "Tucker Carlson Tonight," one of cable's most-watched shows, the suit-and-tie host portrayed an America besieged — by immigration, Black Lives Matter protests and self-righteousness.

Blue eyes plunged straight into those of viewers, for an hour, five nights a week, he commented on the news in a very personal tone, asserting that "American men are in a very delicate position" or that "anti-white racism is exploding across the country".

Pro-Trump

Opposed to abortion, a great defender of the right to bear arms, the 53-year-old pro-Trump presenter has never hesitated to expose his opinions in a program that claimed, on his site, "the sworn enemy of lies".

After his recent resounding indictment in New York, it was to Tucker Carlson that Donald Trump had reserved his first interview, on April 11.

According to his critics, the presenter relied on fear to win viewers.

To the point of going too far? In May 2022, a racist mass shooting plunged Buffalo, New York, into mourning. The young white supremacist accused of seeking to kill as many African-Americans as possible had been influenced by the theory of the "great replacement", a far-right ideology according to which the white population will be supplanted by an immigrant population.

But on his show, Tucker Carlson had mentioned hundreds of times the idea that whites were being replaced by other ethnic groups, according to a New York Times count.

Taking up this figure, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, had denounced "a poison spread by one of the largest media in the country".

Despite the accusations, Fox News had supported his foal at all costs, arguing the diversity of opinions he was supposed to represent. Until Monday.

Was the hefty bill that the channel had to pay to avoid a defamation lawsuit on the 2020 presidential election get the better of him?

During a 2020 trial, the network's lawyers argued that given Tucker Carlson's reputation, any viewer was able to approach his show with a certain amount of skepticism.

"Weird childhood"

Impervious to criticism, this father of four said in September 2022 that "we should only care about the opinion of those who care about you," in an interview with Rubin Report.

A lesson he says he draws from his "bizarre childhood", marked by the departure of his mother, an artist, when he is only six years old. She eventually settled in France and never saw her children again.

Raised by his journalist father, he followed in his footsteps after unsuccessfully trying to join the CIA.

The road to fame is long for Tucker Carlson, who works for CNN and finds himself temporarily unemployed, around the age of 40.

The man who claims to have never had a television lives far from the political heart of the United States, in a rural corner of Maine. It was from there that he usually recorded his show, from a studio set up for him.

Will politics be the next step for him? At one time, rumors were circulating about his possible candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

The interested party had evacuated the idea of a burst of laughter on the conservative podcast "Ruthless", in June 2022. "I'm a talk show host. I like it."

With AFP

The summary of the week France 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news with you everywhere! Download the France 24 app