"Fox News has officially dropped 'The Five' co-host Bob Beckel from the network, saying the show could no longer be held 'hostage' to his personal issues," Dylan Byers of Politico reported earlier* this afternoon:
"We tried to work with Bob for months, but we couldn’t hold The Five hostage to one man’s personal issues," Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming, said in a statement. "He took tremendous advantage of our generosity, empathy and goodwill and we simply came to the end of the road with him."
Shine said Fox News personalities Juan Williams and Geraldo Rivera will be "among those rotating on the show for the near future.”
Beckel, who joined the network in 2000, had entered rehab therapy for his addiction to prescription pain medication in April. His last appearance on the network was Feb. 16, more than four months ago. News of his departure from Fox was first reported by Mediaite.
To read the full piece, click here.
*Corrected from earlier where I noted that Byers broke the story. It was in fact initially reported by Mediaite.
