Fox News Media has parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo, abruptly ending the tenure of one of the network’s most prominent business and political personalities.
WEBDESK – MEDIABITES
Fox News Media has parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo, effective immediately, ending more than 12 years with the company in a sudden departure that caught the television news industry by surprise.
Fox announced the decision Thursday without providing a specific reason for Bartiromo’s exit.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” Fox News Media said in a statement.
The announcement came shortly after Bartiromo’s final episode of “Mornings with Maria” aired on Fox Business Network. Beginning Friday, the program will be renamed “Mornings with FOX Business” and will feature rotating anchors.
Her other programs are also being rebranded. “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” which airs weekly on Fox Business, will become “FBN’s Wall Street,” with Cheryl Casone hosting this week before rotating anchors take over. On Fox News Channel, Jason Chaffetz will host “Sunday Morning Futures” this weekend, while the network searches for a permanent replacement.
Bartiromo had been absent from Fox’s airwaves since Aug. 9, according to Reuters, before the network formally announced her departure. She has not publicly commented on the decision.
The network described the move only as a business decision, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the Los Angeles Times. Fox itself did not elaborate.
Bartiromo joined Fox after building a national profile at CNBC, where she spent two decades covering financial markets and became a familiar presence from the New York Stock Exchange. She moved to Fox in 2013 and became a central figure on both Fox Business and Fox News, hosting programs focused on markets, politics and economic policy.
Her close relationship with President Donald Trump also made her a particularly influential figure within Fox’s political coverage. She frequently interviewed Trump and became known for strongly supportive coverage of his political agenda.
Bartiromo’s departure also comes against the backdrop of legal scrutiny involving Fox’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election. She was among Fox personalities whose programs featured false or unfounded claims about election fraud in litigation brought against the network. Fox settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million in 2023, while a separate case brought by Smartmatic remains unresolved.
The abrupt nature of the exit has drawn comparisons with previous high-profile changes at Fox News, where departures of major personalities have sometimes reshaped the network’s programming lineup.
For now, Fox is moving quickly to remove Bartiromo’s name from its schedule while maintaining the time slots associated with her shows. The network said it will announce a new weekday Fox Business programming schedule in the coming weeks.
Bartiromo leaves behind a career that helped bridge financial journalism and partisan political television, making her departure one of the more consequential changes to Fox’s on-air lineup in recent years.
