Fox to drop Glenn Beck's talk show

Fox News Channel Wednesday said it was dropping Glenn Beck's afternoon talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and suffered financially due to an advertiser boycott.

Fox and Beck said the show will end later this year. Fox News and Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts, said they will work together on projects for Fox television and digital.

Beck was a quick burn on Fox News Channel. Almost immediately after joining the network in January 2009, he doubled ratings at his afternoon time slot. Fans found his conservative populism entertaining, while Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert described Beck's "crank up the crazy and rip off the knob" moments. He was popular with tea party activists and drew thousands to the National Mall in Washington last August for a "restoring honor" rally.

Yet some of his statements were getting him in trouble, and critics appealed to advertisers to boycott his show last summer after Beck said President Barack Obama had "a deep-seated hatred for white people." More than 400 Fox advertisers told the company they did not want their commercials on Beck's show.

Viewers also began turning away. Beck's 5 p.m. show averaged 2.7 million viewers during the first three months of 2010, and was at just under 2 million for the same period this year, the Nielsen Co. said.

-- AP