#Brian Kilmeade Hosts Fox News Show Following Tucker Carlson’s Exit, Wishes Him “the Best”

Brian Kilmeade, a co-host on Fox & Friends, quickly addressed Tucker Carlson’s split from Fox News at the beginning of Monday’s show.

During what would have been Carlson’s show’s time slot, the political commentator started off the newly-name Fox News Tonight by saying, “As you probably have heard, Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.”

Kilmeade then went on to “wish Tucker the best. I’m great friends with Tucker and always will be.”

On Monday, Fox News Media announced that it would be parting ways with the host of its program Tucker Carlson Tonight, which aired on weeknights at 8 p.m. It came as a surprise since Carlson’s program would regularly rank as the most-watched show for the channel and sometimes for all of cable TV. It was not immediately clear what prompted the decision. 

The company said in a statement, “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner also announced the former host’s departure on her program Monday. She said that she has some “news from within our Fox News family,” before reading the channel’s statement on the slit.

According to Fox, the show, which had its last episode with Carlson as host on Friday, will have guest hosts fill in until a replacement is found for the show, now named Fox News Tonight.

Carlson was set to interview Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy Monday night, but Kilmeade proceeded with the interview.

Alex Weprin contributed to this story.