Fox canceled the nightly show of Lou Dobbs, a fierce ally of former President Donald Trump, swapping the program for a series called “Fox Business Tonight” with rotating hosts.
The company said the move was part of changes that had been in the works since the election. “A new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future,” Fox said in a statement Friday.
The longtime financial correspondent, who hosted “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on the Fox Business Network, had alleged on his show that fraud cost Trump the presidential race, culminating in his being named in a $2.7 billion lawsuit filed Thursday against Fox by election-technology firm Smartmatic.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the change earlier, saying that Dobbs isn’t immediately leaving following the cancellation, but is expected to eventually part ways with Fox News. Friday’s episode will be the show’s last.
Dobbs, who also hosted a radio show, joined Fox in 2010 after previously hosting financial programs for years on CNN. A Harvard University graduate with a degree in economics, he worked in government and banking before becoming a journalist. He’s the author of “The Trump Century: How Our President Changed the Course of History Forever.”
The Smartmatic complaint also named Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, as well as Fox itself and Trump’s former attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The suit accused the group and the company of deliberately spreading false information that Smartmatic had fixed the election for Joe Biden. Fox said the suit was without merit and it would vigorously defend itself.