Long-Time Fox News Host Announces Departure From Show

Long-time Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera announced Wednesday that he will no longer be a co-host on “The Five.”

“Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity. Being odd man out isn’t always easy. For the time being, I’m still Correspondent at Large,” Rivera tweeted.

Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity. Being odd man out isn’t always easy. For the time being, I’m still Correspondent at Large.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 21, 2023

Rivera joined “The Five” in January 2022 as a rotating liberal co-host.

The political commentator said he could never support Donald Trump again for “his shameful campaign to slander and undermine American faith in our elections.”

Election Deniers depress me. I blame President Trump for his shameful campaign to slander and undermine American faith in our elections.
For all his positive accomplishments, and there are many, I could never support him again.
Without fealty to the Constitution, we’re 2d rate.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 7, 2022

The Hill reports:

“The Five” is Fox’s top-rated show and features a rotating panel of its leading pundits and personalities discussing the news of the day.

Rivera has made regular appearances on the program in recent months, often engaging in debate with its more conservative or pro-Trump members. Other more left-leaning panelists on the show in recent months have been Jessica Tarlov and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn).

Rivera, who also made regular appearances on Sean Hannity’s prime-time program, has grown increasingly critical of former President Trump in recent years, last fall tweeting he could never support the former president again.

According to the Associated Press, Rivera quit “The Five” because of “growing tension” that made appearing as the ‘odd-man out’ no longer worth it.

Breaking Geraldo Rivera is leaving ‘The Five. pic.twitter.com/Y8qfEeqDdy

— 1776 (@TheWakeninq) June 21, 2023

From AP:

Geraldo Rivera has quit as one of the lonely liberal voices on Fox News’ popular political combat show “The Five,” saying Wednesday that “a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences” made it no longer worth it to him.

The last scheduled appearance on “The Five” for the television veteran, whose 80th birthday is on July 4, is next week.

“It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I hope it’s not my last adventure.”

Rivera said that it was his choice to leave “The Five,” but that Fox management “didn’t race after me to say, ‘Geraldo, please come back.’” There was no immediate comment from Fox.

The news of Rivera’s departure from “The Five” comes on the heels of the cable news network’s ratings plunge.

Fox News has fallen off a cliff since the departure of Tucker Carlson.

MSNBC is starting to eclipse Fox News in some ratings categories.

From The Wrap:

MSNBC outpaced Fox News in primetime demo ratings for the second week in a row.

From Monday, June 12 through Friday, June 16, MSNBC averaged 202,400 viewers in the key cable demographic adults ages 25-54 during primetime, beating Fox News’ primetime demo viewership of 193,000 by 4.75%, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.

As the networks ramped up their coverage of former President Donald Trump’s indictment and arraignment, Fox News scored the highest demo viewership among cable news networks during primetime on Monday and Tuesday, while MSNBC saw primetime demo wins during the latter half of the week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

While MSNBC’s victory in the primetime demo certainly marks a shakeup in ratings from years prior, Fox News maintained its lead in all other categories across primetime and total day viewership.

In terms of total viewership in the demo, Fox News scored an average audience of 1.85 million total viewers during the week, but MSNBC wasn’t far behind with total average viewership of 1.83 million. Though Fox News consistently outnumbered MSNBC for total viewership during primetime last week — winning the No. 1 spot from Tuesday through Friday — MSNBC came in first among total primetime viewers on Monday evening, when MSNBC scored an average 2.13 million viewers and Fox News came in second with 1.82 total viewers.