Glenn Beck is officially leaving Fox on June 30. 
 
 Regardless of Beck's difficult relationship with the network, and his recent dip in ratings, his loss will be felt. Hugely felt. 
 
 So who will Fox replace Beck with. Needless to say there is no one out there who can command the sort of ratings Beck pulled in during the 5pm slot, but they're going to have to find someone! 
 
 So, with that in mind, here's our top choices. ||||| June 02, 2011 10:56 am ET by Eric Boehlert 
 
 If Roger Ailes thought Glenn Beck’s farewell tour for his final, televised goodbye on Fox News this month would generate a ratings boost as past fans turned in to toast Beck’s slow motion send-off, the Fox News chairman must be disappointed because it ain't happening. 
 
 Instead, Glenn Beck, which just last year became a ratings monster for Fox News, is going out with a (relative) whimper, not a bang. In fact, Beck’s ratings for May were among the worst he’s ever posted during his Fox News run. In that sense, Ailes made the right move in cutting ties with Beck: His show’s audience has shrunk by nearly one-half since early 2010, at the same time that hundreds of advertisers, put off by the host’s hateful name-calling and often bewildering conspiracy theories, have pledged not to do business with Beck: 
 
 How much has the advertising exodus cost Fox News? In September 2009, ColorOfChange, which was instrumental in launching the Beck ad boycott, published its analysis. Based on advertising rates it concluded that Glenn Beck was bringing in approximately $600,000 less per-week (or approximately $2.4 million per-month), than it was before the boycott began. Keep in mind, that's when 50 or 60 advertisers had jumped ship. Today, that number hovers between 300-400. Using that $2.4 million per month estimate, since the fall of 2009, it's possible the ad-starved Beck show booked nearly $43 million less than it would have if it weren't facing a boycott. $43 million. With that kind of unprecedented Madison Ave. mass migration, Beck would have needed extraordinary ratings to justify continuing his contract. But Glenn Beck just could not consistently deliver those numbers this year. 
 
 Additionally, here's a look at how far behind Glenn Beck lagged in terms of the number of ads Fox News was able to even run during the boycott-targeted program. 
 
 Beck's program did flash signs of its former ratings life a couple times in recent weeks. The first came on April 6, which was the day Beck announced he was leaving Fox News. His program that night grabbed 2.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. The second temporary boost came during the three-day period following the news flash of Osama bin Laden death, of May 2, 3, and 4, when news consumers flocked to sources of information, and when Beck attracted audiences of 2.7, 2.4, and 2.1 million viewers, respectively. The problem is neither Beck nor Fox News can recreate those type of one-time news events, which means his program seems destined to limp off the air, a shell of its former ratings self. 
 
 In fact, those three bin Laden-spiked programs represented the only times during the previous month that Glenn Beck topped the 2 million audience mark. By contrast, early 2010, Beck’s show used to attract 3 million viewers, and for the entire year it averaged an audience of 2.25 million. But those days are long gone. 
 
 For the first quarter this year, Glenn Beck drew 1.9 million viewers, a decline of 30 percent from the first quarter in 2010. And specifically in January, Beck’s audience was 1.8 million, marking, at the time, his worst Fox News ratings month. In the just-completed month of May though, Beck matched that low water mark, once again drawing 1.8 million viewers. 
 
 So yes, Ailes' decision to take Beck off the air looks like a smart one, financially. It was Ailes' editorial decision to put Beck on the air in the first place, along with the host's cavalcade of hateful lies, that was the big mistake. ||||| Glenn Beck stepped down from his Fox News show on Thursday after two and a half tumultuous, controversial years at the network. 
 
 He kept the chalkboards to a minimum, and shed no tears. He also shied away from too many specific recollections about his show. Instead, he broadly reminisced about what he said he had learned from the experience, repeatedly praised Fox News for allowing his show to air and professed his excitement for his next step: the Web TV channel known as "GBTV." 
 
 Beck said that the reason for his departure from Fox News was simple: there was more that he wanted to do. The show, he said, was really a movement "that belongs in your home. It belongs in your neighborhoods. Not really television." He repeatedly directed viewers to his website, where the next chapter of his professional life will be centered. 
 
 The show featured many of the things that made Beck famous—long monologues, high emotion, mentions of God and Hitler—but, in some ways, was hardly representative of the show that made him, for a few years at least, a cultural icon and a lightning rod. 
 
 Beck's impassioned, grandiose, often inflammatory style and his embrace of the Tea Party movement sent his notoriety skyrocketing, and made him the most polarizing personality on an already-polarizing network. He drew high ratings (even when his show's popularity fell, it was still the fourth most watched cable news program) and a large following; his rally on the Washington Mall in 2010 was evidence of his ability to move masses. 
 
 However, Beck often drew equally heated criticism for his highly controversial comments and elaborate, chalkboard-laden explanations of the world. Most famously, he called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred of white people," accused liberal billionaire George Soros of being at the center of a destructive global order, and warned that the so-called "Arab Spring" would lead to a new Islamic caliphate. 
 
 Scroll down for a recap of Beck's farewell show. 
 
 Beck and Fox News each benefited from their relationship—his popularity, and its ratings, both grew. But, as the criticism of Beck increased—and as an aggressive campaign caused up to 400 advertisers to drop their support of his show—both sides grew weary. Tensions between Beck's camp and Fox News spilled out in public, and the two groups eventually decided to sever their ties. 
 
 Now, Beck is setting out on his own, like so many of his media peers these days. He will be starting his own Web TV channel called GBTV. On his Thursday radio show, Beck said that he would immediately launch the channel following the end of his Fox News show. 
 
 "I'm so sick and tired of being in the system," he said. "I’m not going to play the game anymore.” It remains to be seen how successful Beck's new venture will be. With the vast majority of his income coming from outside Fox News, though, and with a growing media empire, he is more well-positioned than most.
– Mark it down on the chalkboard: Glenn Beck's final day on Fox will be June 30, reports Mediaite. A gleeful Media Matters notes that Beck's ratings in May were among his worst ever. Business Insider, meanwhile, suggests five possible replacements, including Megan Kelly and SE Cupp. Beck, of course, will remain busy online and elsewhere, notes the Daily Caller. See here, here, and here for examples.