Fox News Media has parted company with Maria Bartiromo, and it has not said why. The network announced on Thursday, September 3, 2026, that she was no longer with the company, effective that day. Its statement thanked her for 12 and a half years of work and wished her well in “her next chapter”.
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That is the whole of the official explanation. Fox gave no reason, and by Thursday afternoon her staff page on the Fox Business site had gone.
What she was doing at Fox
Bartiromo was one of the company’s busiest anchors. She fronted a three-hour weekday morning programme on Fox Business Network, plus Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News at the weekend. A third show, Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street, also ran under her name.
All three are staying on air without her. The weekday show becomes Mornings with Fox Business, with a rota of anchors, and Wall Street becomes FBN’s Wall Street on the same basis. Jason Chaffetz, a Fox contributor and former congressman, took the Sunday slot for the first weekend, with a permanent host to be named later.
Two accounts of her last broadcast
The two main reports differ on when viewers last saw her. The Guardian says she had been absent since early August, and points out that hosts often take summer breaks. AP News, by contrast, reports that the final episode of Mornings with Maria aired on Thursday morning, hours before the announcement.
The Guardian also draws a comparison with 2023, when Fox used similar wording to announce Tucker Carlson’s exit, and reads the abruptness as a sign the departure was not her choice.
What Trump and Vance said
The reaction from Washington came fast. On Truth Social late on Thursday, President Donald Trump wrote that he could not believe she would no longer have her shows. He called her “a total professional, and a true warrior” and said her fans “will not be happy”.
Vice President JD Vance told reporters he had not spoken to her and did not know the back story. He called her “an amazing person, an amazing talent” and “a very, very dear friend”.
There was no immediate reaction from Bartiromo. Her account on X still carried a banner inviting viewers to join her every morning.
The lawsuit in the background
One unresolved matter is the Smartmatic case. The voting technology company sued Fox for $2.7 billion over claims broadcast about the 2020 election. Bartiromo is one of three hosts named in the suit. AP News reports that the suit alleges she spread false rumours of election fraud on air, a claim she has rejected. The earlier Dominion Voting Systems case, in which she was also named, settled in April 2023.
Documents from the Smartmatic case showed she had earned $70 million over her years at Fox. An unnamed Fox News Media employee told the Guardian that colleagues were asking whether she was leaving for a role in the administration, or whether the lawsuit was the cause. Last spring she and fellow Fox host Laura Ingraham joined the board of the Kennedy Center. Some conservatives have floated her as a possible White House press secretary.
Where she came from
Before Fox, Bartiromo spent 20 years at CNBC, and before that she worked at CNN. At CNBC she was the first television journalist to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and she won two Emmy Awards. AP News credits her with pioneering daily live reports from that floor, and with an Emmy for a documentary about Google. Her move to Fox came in 2013, with her first Fox shows starting in January 2014.
The next question is who takes the Sunday chair for good, and whether she surfaces in Washington. Fox has said a new host will be announced later. It has not said when.
