Fox News Media abruptly severed ties with anchor Maria Bartiromo on Thursday, September 3, 2026, closing out more than a decade at the conservative media company and prompting an immediate scrub of her name from its schedule and websites.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” the company said in a terse announcement that gave no reason for the exit and carried no comment from Bartiromo. Within minutes her Fox Business biography page was gone, replaced with an error message saying the person could not be found.
The last edition carrying her name aired Thursday morning on Fox Business Network. Bartiromo herself, though, had not appeared on any Fox News Media program since August 9, having vanished from her own shows weeks before the split was announced.
Fox Strips Her Name From Three Shows
Within hours the network pulled her name off three programs. “Mornings with Maria” (6-9 a.m. ET) turns into “Mornings with Fox Business” on Friday, September 4, with rotating anchors. “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” (Fridays, 7-7:30 p.m. ET) becomes “FBN’s Wall Street,” with Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone in the chair on Friday, September 4, and rotating hosts after that.
On Fox News Channel, Jason Chaffetz, a Fox contributor and former Utah congressman, anchored “Sunday Morning Futures” (10-11 a.m. ET) on Sunday, September 6, with a permanent host still to be named. Pro-Trump viewers hit his debut with an online backlash, demanding Bartiromo’s return. Fox Business said it would roll out a new weekday schedule in the coming weeks.
Neither Side Explains the Break
Neither side offered a public explanation. A person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak, characterized it as a business decision. People with knowledge of the situation said the rupture may have come down to Bartiromo passing Fox’s internal company texts to the Trump White House. Fox had instructed senior employees to avoid covering President Donald Trump’s July primetime address, the media newsletter Status reported on September 4, and Bartiromo shared that guidance with the White House, in violation of company policy; she was taken off the air shortly after. Trump used that address to make unproven and false claims about the 2020 election, and Daily Beast reporter Josh Fiallo reported that he claimed China interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
Dylan Byers of Puck put forward a different explanation on September 4, citing sources who said Bartiromo intended to pursue a story on election conspiracies in connection with China, prompting a Fox Business executive to tell producers the story could not run.