Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy is leaving the show’s couch after 30 years, relocating to Florida to host the show remotely.
The 68-year-old star broke down as he made the announcement on Thursday, explaining he no longer wanted to wake up at 3:30 a.m.
“There is one downside—I have a lot of friends in this skyscraper, and I will miss seeing them in person,“ he said through tears. ”The security guys, the café crew, especially the hair and makeup team because they are geniuses at what they do. Exhibit A ladies and gentlemen. And the closest to my heart, the Fox & Friends team—working day and night producing America’s number-one cable morning news show.
Doocy said he was “not retiring or leaving the show” but that “it is time for a change.”
“It is a great job, but the hours suck,” he said.
Doocy explained that his new role will allow him to traverse parts of the United States he claims do not get much national airtime, a route that will take him “from the Carolinas to the Keys, from Middle America to Mar-a-Lago.”
“Call me the coast-to-coast host,” he said.
Doocy told Mediaite that he and Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott had been plotting the change for “a year and a half.”
“We looked at what the next stage of my career with Fox News could look like, and we agreed on three days a week, and I got just what I wanted,” he said.
The downside, Doocy said on Thursday, will be leaving his New York-based Fox & Friends crew. He said he would return to the show in his new role after a 10-day vacation.
“I will continue to join this couch crew for commentary,” he said. “You have trusted me for all these years and don’t worry, you will still hear my voice and my opinions loud and clear despite whatever seasonal pollen is killing me.”
Megan Albano, Fox News’ top executive of morning programming, said the network was “looking forward to him taking his trademark style from the couch to cities across America’s heartland where he will co-host from diners to pickleball courts and more.”
“For nearly 30 years, Steve has been a force on the curvy couch with his signature smile and wit,” Albano said in a statement. “His relationship with our audience is unmatched.”
Doocy said on Thursday he will spend more time with his Florida-based wife, kids, and grandchildren, including Fox News’ Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy.
Doocy joined the network in 1996 after a stint on NBC and CBS morning shows, helping to launch Fox & Friends in 1998. He is one of the longest-running morning show anchors after NBC’s Al Roker on Today and his Fox & Friends co-anchor Brian Kilmeade.
He has often been the host who has probed conservatives most intensely, sparring with his Fox & Friends co-hosts earlier this month over Trump’s tariffs and questioning Trump’s declaration that the U.S. could “take over” the Gaza Strip. He also cast doubt on Trump’s defense of hoarding boxes of federal documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.
“Ultimately, it comes down to ‘Why did he have all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago?’” he said after the FBI raided Trump’s estate. “I know his team has said they declassified it, but that’s news to the agencies that those documents belong to.”
Still, despite the approach, Doocy told Mediaite he had a “nice relationship” with the president, a frequent Fox & Friends watcher and commentator. Doocy also revealed he and Trump “had a nice conversation about how I’d be more in Florida.”
Trump continued that relationship on Thursday as he lavished praise on Doocy during a prerecorded video message—where Trump labeled himself Doocy’s “all-time favorite president.”
“I just want to congratulate you on your new and probably enhanced role, ”he said. “I just think you’re a fantastic guy, you’ve always treated me fairly. Sometimes, a little more fairly than other times, but that’s OK.”
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