New York CNN —
Veteran Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, one of the network’s longest-serving hosts who became a frequent target of President-elect Donald Trump, is leaving the network after nearly three decades on the air.
Cavuto made the announcement Thursday on his afternoon program “Your World,” saying he had been planning to depart for “some time” but that he is “not leaving journalism. I’m just leaving here.”
“I got to do what I love to do, report the news. Not shout the news, not blast the news. Not call names, just call balls and strikes, following the news, hold truth to power and fairness to all. That’s it, that’s me,” Cavuto said.
Cavuto began as an anchor with Fox News when it launched in 1996, jumping from CNBC to the nascent right-wing network founded by Rupert Murdoch. At his sign off, he was hosting some 12 hours every week across the Fox Business and Fox News channels.
Cavuto said he had been “offered a very generous opportunity for me to stay years more.” According to a person familiar with the matter, Cavuto was offered a contract extension, but at a lower salary, and he declined.
In recent years, the folksy Cavuto has stood out as one of the few remaining Fox News anchors willing to forcefully fact-check and even criticize Trump. Being a business news anchor at heart, he felt it was his role to separate fact from fiction, especially when financial decisions were on the line.
But Cavuto’s emphasis on what was true – versus what the Trump base wanted to be true – cost him viewers. Some Trump fans never forgave him after he cut away from a 2020 press conference by Kayleigh McEnany, then the White House press secretary, because McEnany was repeating baseless claims of voter fraud.
Trump, channeling the feelings of some Fox viewers, celebrated Cavuto’s departure on Thursday.
“GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICA! Neil Cavuto, the Lowest Rated Anchor on Fox, by far, is leaving – Should have happened a long time ago!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
But many others praised Cavuto, especially on his final broadcast.
“I’ve always appreciated you. You call balls and strikes. You’re not a ‘yes-man.’ It’s an honor to be on your show,” The Hill editor-in-chief Bob Cusack said.
“Bravo Neil Cavuto on 3 great decades at Fox News. Fair and balanced for real, Neil never chickened out,” former Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera wrote on X. “Even in the Time of Trump, when it would have been easy, he was a truth teller. He angered the ideologues but never backed down.”
Cavuto also thanked Fox for sticking with him through his multiple health issues, including multiple sclerosis, open heart surgery and being hospitalized for weeks with a serious case of Covid-19.
