For the past several years, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has been one of the liberal co-hosts on the network's popular and top-rated panel discussion program "The Five."
That will soon end, however, as Rivera announced on Wednesday that he will be departing from that role in just a matter of days, the Conservative Brief reported.
The impetus for his sudden exit is most likely a weariness with always being the lone liberal-leaning voice surrounded by conservative-leaning co-hosts in a format geared toward and driven by combative conversations on the news of the day.
In a Wednesday morning tweet, Rivera wrote, "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," he added.
The comments in reply to that post were a near-even split of Twitter users either celebrating his departure from the program or thanking him for providing a different perspective than the others at the table, even if they didn't always agree with what he had to say.
In addition to that tweeted announcement, Rivera also shared the news of his impending exit from "The Five" with the Associated Press, in which he provided a little bit more background information and details on why he had decided that it was time for him to go.
"It has been a rocky ride but it has also been an exhilarating adventure that spanned quite a few years," Rivera said in a Wednesday interview. "I hope it’s not my last adventure."
He said that it had been entirely his choice to leave the top-rated program but noted that Fox News executives "didn’t race after me to say, 'Geraldo, please come back.'"
Rivera, who turns 80 next month, has been with Fox News since 2001 and plans to remain with the network at least through the conclusion of his current contract, which expires in January 2025.
On "The Five," Rivera would rotate as the lone liberal with contributors Jessica Tarlov and former Democratic Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, Jr., while the four permanent conservative-leaning co-hosts included Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jeanine Pirro, and Jesse Watters.
He and Gutfeld in particular have had a number of contentious arguments -- both on the program and on Twitter -- and Rivera told the AP, "There has been a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes. It’s not worth it to me."
Rivera further revealed his commitment to oppose former President Donald Trump's re-election bid and the "friction" that stance might provoke with his fellow co-hosts, even as he acknowledged that the high viewership numbers for "The Five" would seemingly make it an ideal platform from which to share his anti-Trump message.
"I’m 80 years old. I don’t want the friction. 'The Five' is too intimate a place and it gets too personal," he explained, and further added that his relationships with the other co-hosts were "a reflection of what the country is going through ... It’s not an easy job if you take it as personally as I do."
