Former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg appeared on Tuesday’s episode of MSNBC’s Deadline: White House to discuss Tucker Carlson‘s exit from Fox News Media.
“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said in a statement released Monday morning.
Carlson has not publicly addressed his departure from the network since Monday and did not host a farewell show.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the bombshell news dropped, Grossberg—senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday morning show-turned head of booking for Tucker Carlson Tonight—has alleged a laundry list of bad behavior behind the scenes at his top-rated primetime show.
In a lawsuit filed in a New York federal court against Carlson and various Fox News producers on March 20, Grossberg alleges they ran “a work environment that subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes.” She accused two senior producers on the show of making antisemitic remarks, and she also alleged that lawyers for Fox News coached her to make false testimony during her deposition in the Dominion lawsuit.
“Fox News Media engaged an independent outside counsel to immediately investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review,” Fox News said in a statement.
“Abby Grossberg’s allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and she had no bearing on the settlement. We will vigorously defend Fox against all of her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.”
Grossberg was fired by Fox News in late-March after filing the lawsuit, and sources told the LA Times’ Steve Battaglio that Carlson’s exit from the network is likely related to the lawsuit.
When discussing the show’s culture with Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace, Grossberg remarked, “It was very out in the open. What you see is what ends up on air. People are believers who are there.” She added, “I found it difficult to cover the kind of stories that they wanted me to cover. I wasn’t expecting it. Maybe I should have. That’s what some people say.”
Wallace asked Grossberg point blank why she left Bartiromo for Carlson in the first place.
“I was working with Maria Bartiromo at the time. I knew as a female that I would never get the executive producer role title there working on that show,” she said. “The opportunity came up to go to Tucker and it was a promotion. I would be overseeing a team. I would also be overseeing three different platforms and I liked the staff, honestly, when I interviewed with them. I was hoping that it would be more professional and what he would be portraying on air was just a show. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
“Obviously I’m at the center of a lot of this and it felt surreal and there were a lot of mixed emotions that went through my head… Tucker and his executive producer… really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell”- Abby Grossberg w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/hcGZBpRcBE
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) April 25, 2023
Grossberg also told Wallace that when the Jan. 6 insurrection tapes were being released, Carlson was dead set on finding an FBI informant who was planted in the crowd during the riot, essentially fostering a conspiracy theory that the FBI was responsible for the attack, not election falsehoods pushed in Fox News primetime.
“When I went back to them and said, ‘look, there’s no conspiracy theory here,’ I called this attorney that’s representing one of the Proud Boys, and he flat out told me on two occasions, ‘There is no conspiracy. Get away from this stuff. This is dangerous. Tell Tucker to stop. I’ll come on your show and represent my client. But I absolutely will walk off if he asks me this,'” said Grossberg.
The former booker says she was told to “find somebody else” who will support their conspiracy theory.
“Tucker is really intent on this and that wore on my mental health too, because by that time I had really begun to connect the dots that the programming that we were putting on the air every night was not just generating business, but also generating hatred in the audience,” said Grossberg. “And after January 6th, I had this wake-up moment that this is hurting people. People are getting angry and people are acting out on that anger. And this is not okay. And I don’t want to be part of that.”
Abby Grossberg says Tucker Carlson was hellbent on finding an FBI informant within the crowd on Jan. 6, even as a lawyer for one of the Proud Boys told them to stay away from the subject matter. pic.twitter.com/zY84urgh0H
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) April 25, 2023