Carlson gone; ‘Crossfire’ might follow

CNN said goodbye to pundit Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, and with him likely the “Crossfire” program that has been the granddaddy of high-volume political debate shows on cable television.

CNN will probably fold “Crossfire” into its other programming, perhaps as an occasional segment on the daytime show “Inside Politics,” said Jonathan Klein, who was appointed in late November as chief executive of CNN’s U.S. network.

Klein on Wednesday told Carlson, one of the four “Crossfire” hosts, that CNN would not be offering him a new contract. Carlson has been talking with MSNBC about a prime-time opening replacing Deborah Norville.

“I would host any kind of show for (MSNBC Chief Executive) Rick Kaplan,” said Carlson, whose Friday PBS show, “Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered,” resumes this week.

The bow-tie-wearing conservative pundit got into a public tussle last fall with comic Jon Stewart, who has been critical of cable political programs that devolve into shout fests.

“Crossfire” began in 1982 and was once a mainstay of CNN’s prime time.