A week after first announcing that he would no longer be a co-host on the Fox News show “The Five,” longtime TV personality Geraldo Rivera teased a final farewell Thursday in a video he posted to Twitter.
At first, the news was that Rivera had quit, then headlines read that he was fired. It sounds like a very stormy exit for the longtime broadcaster, who has suffered with relationships on and off at the network.
“Geraldo Rivera officially QUITS Fox News after 23 years at the network – a week after being booted from The Five due to dust-ups with co-hosts Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld,” The Daily Mail reported, adding more details:
Geraldo Rivera has been a presence on the Fox network since 2001 when his then-friend Roger Ailes brought him from CNBC. His time at the right-leaning network had become considerably more contentious since he dramatically dropped support for Donald Trump in 2021. He previously announced that his last appearances on The Five would take place on June 29th and 30th – then he said Thursday that those would not be happening after all.
Rivera said the video was shot on the ocean off of Jones Beach on Long Island, where he had gathered for a family celebration.
“Bumpy day on the North Atlantic. Anyway, I got fired from @TheFive so I quit Fox. After 23 years tomorrow Fox and Friends could be my last appearance on the network. Thanks for the memories,” he wrote in his Twitter post.
The posters were bumpy in numerous ways. It appeared as if his remaining appearances were still up in the air at the time of his video.
Rivera had posted about his plan earlier in a tease about what was unfolding, saying that his family was going to be celebrating with him, with a hint of sadness to his voice, also saying that hopefully, nothing was going to ‘detour the appointment’, closing by saying that he thought it would be very fun and the network was important to him:
Exciting times. Lots of friends and colleagues from @TheFive & elsewhere sending everything from condolences to congratulations. My final episodes on the program scheduled for Thursday 29 and Friday 30. Hope you’ll be there, live.
Getting close…my 80th birthday next week and this coming Thursday and Friday my last appearances on @TheFive pic.twitter.com/p0Lmt8Pjca
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 27, 2023
Then later, he posted again on the 29 ahead of the final Friday show:
“It doesn’t look like I’m going to be on ‘The Five,’” Rivera said in the video. “I mean I’m not going to be on ‘The Five.’ I’ve been fired from ‘The Five’ and as a result of that I quit Fox.”
Rivera closed with a promo for his Friday appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“I’ll have more to say about that on ‘Fox & Friends’ tomorrow morning,” he said.
The Western Journal reported that when Rivera announced last week that he was leaving the show, he implied he was remaining with Fox News. Thursday’s post offered a different explanation from the one Rivera gave the Associated Press last week, adding:
“There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes. It’s not worth it to me,” he said then.
Rivera said he chose to leave “The Five,” but that Fox News “didn’t race after me to say, ‘Geraldo, please come back.’”
The site Radar Online framed the departure as the end of a saga that included “knockdown drag-out fights” between Rivera and co-host Greg Gutfeld, based on what it called an insider it did not name.
“Geraldo and Greg do not get along,” the source told the outlet. “That is obvious to anyone who watches ‘The Five.’ But what people didn’t see on television is how often that tension spilled over to off-the-camera,” the insider said.
Radar Online cited another source as saying Rivera had no support from upper management.
“When the tension between Greg and Geraldo spilled from on-air to off-air —and people were forced to pick a side —it came down to choosing between a Fox News stalwart or the future of Fox News. And Greg had the overwhelming backing,” the source said.
In its report, the Los Angeles Times wrote that “Rivera’s departure is likely part of the cost-cutting moves that have been made across the network over the last month.”
Here is the melancholy tweet:
Bumpy day on the North Atlantic. Anyway, I got fired from @TheFive so I quit Fox. After 23 years tomorrow Fox and Friends could be my last appearance on the network. Thanks for the memories. pic.twitter.com/74Qgalz8sF
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 29, 2023
Fox News is undergoing some massive changes to their lineups, especially after Tucker Carlson is gone from the platform and blazing the countryside from his home- and appearing to hundreds of millions of people from Twitter.
Puck reported that Carlson might be starting his own media company:
Tucker Carlson is raising cash to start a new media company and could enlist former staffers from his show on Fox News, according to a report. On Wednesday, Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that Carlson’s recent Twitter monologues could be a “top-of-funnel play for other things Tucker may soon have cooking,” and that sources say Carlson “is raising capital to launch a new company that may yet prove more influential.”
The report added that Carlson will “certainly benefit from an incongruous number of ultra wealthy conservative media investors” and that his “new media play” could “serve as a paradigm for a generation of TV news personalities with huge followings and fandoms who remain marooned to their desks amid shrinking audiences.”
The report also claimed that “the vast majority” of his former staffers fired by Fox News this week would be joining him.
It is doubtful that Rivera will land on Carlson’s site.
The post Geraldo Rivera Says He Quit Fox News After Being Fired from ‘The Five’ appeared first on The Republic Brief.
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