The Fox Business Network fired its highest-rated host, Lou Dobbs, on Friday night. “Lou Dobbs Tonight” is off the air, effective immediately, a Fox spokesperson confirmed. An interim show will take Dobbs’ place at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern starting Monday.
The Los Angeles Times was first to report the news.
While the network declined to specify why they terminated Dobbs, he was recently named in a massive lawsuit filed by voting technology company, Smartmatic. The suit claims that Dobbs damaged the company’s reputation while perpetuating former President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud.
Dobbs was one of Trump’s greatest supporters. “Nobody loves America more than Lou,” Trump said. “He had a large and loyal following that will be watching closely for his next move, and that following includes me.”
Dobbs’ program aired twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. on the Fox Business Channel.
“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,” the network said in a prepared statement. “This is part of those planned changes. A new 5:00 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”
In addition to pending legal action from Smartmatic, another voter systems company, Dominion has threatened to sue Fox.
Smartmatic’s lawsuit also named Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as people spread lies during the election.
