Fox News said it has “agreed to part ways” with Tucker Carlson, its popular and controversial host, less than a week after settling a lawsuit over the network’s 2020 US election reporting.

The network said in a press release that the last programme of Tucker Carlson Tonight aired on Friday.

“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the press release from the network said.

Carlson became Fox’s most popular personality after replacing Bill O’Reilly in Fox’s prime-time line-up in 2016.

He has also consistently drawn headlines for controversial coverage, including most recently airing tapes from the January 6 Capitol insurrection to minimise the impact of the deadly attack.

There was no immediate explanation from Fox about why Carlson was leaving.

Fox agreed last week to pay Dominion Voting Systems more than 787 million dollars (£631 million) and acknowledged that some of its reporting following the 2020 election – which allowed former US president Donald Trump’s aides to amplify false charges of election fraud – was incorrect.

But that reporting mostly concerned other shows, not Carlson’s.

His name did come up during the case, primarily because of email and text messages that were revealed as part of the lawsuit.

Carlson and other Fox hosts were caught in private messages doubting their own network’s allegations about Dominion’s role in the supposed election fraud, while also being concerned that Fox was losing audience among Trump fans at the time.

In some of them, Carlson privately criticised Mr Trump, saying he hated him passionately.

A few weeks ago, Carlson devoted his entire show to an interview with Mr Trump.

Carlson was recently named in a lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a Fox News producer sacked after claiming that Fox lawyers had pressured her to give misleading evidence in the Dominion lawsuit.

Ms Grossberg had gone to work for Carlson after leaving Maria Bartiromo’s Fox show.

Her lawsuit says that Ms Grossberg learned “she had merely traded in one overtly misogynistic work environment for an even crueler one – this time, one where unprofessionalism reigned supreme, and the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision”.

Fox has countered with its own lawsuit, trying to bar Ms Grossberg from disclosing confidential discussions with Fox lawyers and saying in a statement that “her allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless”.

Fox News Tonight will air in Carlson’s 8pm ET prime-time slot, hosted by a rotating array of network personalities, for the time being.