Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera announced his departure from “The Five” in a social media post on Wednesday, but didn’t admit why until a follow-up interview later the same day.
“Morning, it’s official, I’m off [The Five],” Rivera revealed in a an early morning tweet. “My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th.”
“It’s been a great run and I appreciate having had the opportunity,” the post continued. “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, Rivera said that being one of the rotating liberal co-hosts on the popular program was a rough road.
Morning, it’s official, I’m off @TheFive. My last scheduled show appearances are Thursday and Friday June 29th and 30th. 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.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 21, 2023
Rivera regularly swaps seats with Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford Jr. to provide a democratic counterpoint to the show’s conservative stars Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino and Jeanine Pirro.
“You can imagine the friction that role by definition,” he told the outlet on Wednesday.
Rivera will become an octogenarian on the 4th of July, days after his last scheduled appearance on “The Five.”
“I’m 80 years old, I don’t want the friction,” he said about the stress of appearing on the show. “‘The Five’ is too intimate a place and it gets too personal.”
The longtime correspondent has clashed with co-host Greg Gutfeld multiple times on screen and social media.
He clearly ruffled Gutfeld and Fox News’ feathers when he roasted Tucker Carlson about getting axed from the network, despite all of his colleagues staying tight-lipped about the separation.
I don’t wish ill on anybody, but there is no doubt-as I said at the time-Tucker Carlson’s perverse January 6 conspiracy theory was “bullshit.”
Having lost the election President Trump incited an insurrection that sought to undermine our Constitutional process.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) April 26, 2023
“I don’t wish ill on anybody, but there is no doubt-as I said at the time-Tucker Carlson’s perverse January 6 conspiracy theory was ‘bulls**t,’” he tweeted on April 26.
Gutfeld snapped back that he was “a class act” and “a real man of the people,” over the commentary.
Fox News was apparently equally unimpressed, and sidelined Rivera from the show for several episodes.
His suspension came on the heels of an on-air spat with Gutfeld over electric vehicles in mid-April.
Rivera claimed that the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit that went into effect in April was “not a big deal” to American consumers.
“I was gonna buy an EV Bentley,” Rivera glibly told his co-hosts much to the conservative comedian’s obvious dismay. “They offered me a $7,500 rebate. I said, I don’t need the $7,500.”
“Thank God you connect with our audience,” Gutfeld jabbed.
“You just explained why people like you find it so easy to sermonize about electric vehicles, because you can afford it,” he continued.
“Are you attacking me?” Rivera hissed.
The argument devolved into Gutfeld shouting that Rivera wanted to force Americans to buy EV’s because he could afford it, which he punctuated with a finger.
“Stop pointing at me!” Rivera repeatedly screamed from across the table. “Stop pointing at me!”
Rivera told the outlet that Fox News executives “didn’t race after [him] to say, ‘Geraldo, please come back,’” after he announced his departure.
“There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes,” he explained. “It’s not worth it to me.”
Rivera noted that his relationship with “The Five” costars is “a reflection of what the country is going through. … It’s not an easy job if you take it as personally as I do.”
On Thursday’s episode of ABC’s “The View,” panelist Joy Behar echoed his sentiment and took a shot at Pirro.
“[Geraldo] has to sit there with Jeanine and the rest of them, it’s hard to sit there with these people who are spewing lies every day,” she spewed. “They always say that they quit.”
“I don’t know anything about that. I said I quit [The View] years ago, when they fired me,” Behar continued. “No one’s giving up these lucrative jobs so easily. You have to be fired. So, take it from me.”
Rivera may be done on “The Five,” but will remain with the network until his contract is up at the beginning of 2025.
“It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years,” Rivera said about his more than two decades at Fox News.
“I hope it’s not my last adventure.”