Following a Wednesday morning tweet revealing he was leaving The Five, Geraldo Rivera has issued a subsequent statement revealing he has quit the Fox News political commentary series rather than being booted. The veteran TV personality said appearing on the series was no longer “worth it to me.”
The Five is a late-afternoon panelist program on Fox News that features conservative panelists Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld and rotating “liberal” panelists Rivera, Jessica Tarlov, and Harold Ford Jr. The latter three have served as rotating hosts since Juan Williams left the series in 2021. The series, which has been running since 2011, boasts some of cable news’ highest ratings.
“Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th,” Rivera tweeted Wednesday morning. “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.”
In an interview with The Associated Press following the Twitter announcement, Rivera cited growing discontent on the series as his reason for leaving. “There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes,” he said. “It’s not worth it to me.”
“It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years,” he said. “I hope it’s not my last adventure.” The veteran TV personality noted that while it was his choice to leave, Fox News “didn’t race after me to say, ‘Geraldo, please come back.’”
As stated in his tweet, Rivera will still be a “correspondent at large” at Fox News. His contract is set to expire in January 2025. Rivera turns 80 on July 4, 2023.
Back in May, Rivera revealed that two of his upcoming appearances on The Five had been canceled on Twitter. He told The Associated Press on June 21 that these cancellations were suspensions.
The suspensions came after Rivera called ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson‘s downplaying of the January 6 insurrection “bullshit” in a tweet, prompting Gutfeld to respond, “You’re a class act Geraldo, a real man of the people.” Carlson had claimed that the violent crowd were merely “sightseers” at the Capitol Building. (Carlson was fired from the network effective immediately on April 24, with Tucker Carlson Tonight being canceled along with it.)
Like Williams before him, Rivera frequently sparred with Gutfeld on the show. During a heated exchange about abortion rights in 2022, Rivera called Gutfeld “an arrogant punk” on air. Rivera’s June 21 comments did not include any direct references to Gutfeld.
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