Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business Network was canceled Friday. It will be replaced by Fox Business Tonight with alternating guest hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman for the time being.
The cancellation, first reported by The Los Angeles Times, came a day after the network, Dobbs and others were sued for $2.7 billion.
The change in programming was routine and had nothing to do with the lawsuit, a Fox News Media spokesperson said. "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 new 5PM program will be announced in the near future."
Dobbs is one of three hosts named by Smartmatic, an election technology company, in a defamation case. The company alleged the Fox Corporation had participated in a disinformation campaign that "had a direct and harmful impact on Smartmatic's ability to conduct business in the United States and around the world now and in the future." Along with Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro, Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were named in the court documents.
Dobbs has spent more than a decade at Fox after serving as chief economic correspondent, managing editor and executive vice president at CNN. Fox network didn't say Dobbs had been fired but he isn't expected to return to the air.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.