Geraldo Rivera, 80, Joins NewsNation's Correspondent Team Months After His Sudden Fox News Departure

Geraldo Rivera will join NewsNation as a correspondent-at-large, less than a year after his dramatic departure from Fox News.

In an announcement, NewsNation said Rivera, 80, will join the team "effective immediately" and will "appear across the network’s daytime and primetime programming." Rivera's first appearance as a correspondent will happen Wednesday on CUOMO, which airs at 8 p.m. ET. 

“Geraldo is a legendary journalist whose talent and experience is unrivaled in the industry,” Michael Corn, president of news at NewsNation, said in the statement. “We look forward to him joining the network and providing our viewers with his one-of-a-kind analysis.” 

Rivera has spent 50 years working in television, and previously served as senior correspondent and co-host of the roundtable program The Five at Fox News. The five-person panel talk show features four conservative voices and one rotating liberal personality — which was often Rivera, who rotated along with Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford Jr. — and hosted with regular conservative voices Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, Jeanine Pirro and Greg Gutfeld.

Rivera, who joined Fox News in 2001, announced he was leaving the network last June.

A spokesperson for Fox News shared a statement at the time, saying, “We reached an amicable conclusion with Geraldo over the past few weeks and look forward to celebrating him tomorrow on Fox & Friends which will be his last appearance on the network.”

At the time of his exit, the veteran journalist initially suggested that he left The Five at his own will, but later said that he was “fired” from The Five and decided to quit the network altogether.

"I had a very toxic relationship with another of the cast members,” Rivera said during an appearance on ABC’s The View in July.

Rivera notably had a number of on-air clashes with Gutfeld, in particular. In one segment, Rivera told Gutfeld to “stop pointing at me” when they argued over electric vehicles, per the Associated Press. In another, Rivera called Gutfeld “an arrogant punk” during a discussion about abortion.

In his final segment on the network, Rivera grew emotional as he said he had "such affection for the people in this building."

"I really, I feel very emotional and deeply moved," he added, after a montage of his work on Fox was shown to audiences. "I will always remember this morning. It is something that I didn’t expect, this celebration is beyond the beyond."

Prior to his time Fox, Rivera worked at ABC News where he served as an original anchor of Good Morning America and as an original senior investigative reporter on 20/20. Previously, he hosted a self-titled syndicated talk show, The Geraldo Rivera Show, from 1987 to 1998.