NEW YORK — Glenn Beck later this year will end his Fox News Channel talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and has suffered from an advertiser boycott.
Fox and Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, said Wednesday they will stay in business creating other projects for Fox television and digital, starting with some documentaries Beck is preparing.
Almost immediately after joining the network in January 2009, Beck doubled the ratings at his afternoon time slot. Fans found his conservative populism entertaining, while Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert described Beck’s “crank up the crazy and rip off the knob” moments. He was popular with Tea Party activists and drew a large crowd — estimates ranged from tens of thousands to 500,000 — to the National Mall in Washington in August for a “Restoring Honor” rally.
Yet some of his statements were getting him in trouble, and critics appealed to advertisers to boycott his show last summer after Beck said President Barack Obama had “a deep-seated hatred for white people.”
Beck said he went to Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman and chief executive, in January to discuss ways they could continue to work together without the daily show.
“Half of the headlines say he’s been canceled,” Ailes said. “The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”
Beck has built a powerful brand for himself through a daily radio show, best-selling books and personal appearances. Mercury Radio Arts is expanding, and a key Fox executive, Joel Cheatwood, is joining the company later this month.
