It’s early to know what the truth is. But Fred had ample opportunity to leave the show last year, when his charming senior partner Andy Parks was let go and Fred’s own job hung by a hair. This doesn’t have the feel of a brief stunt put on to get him out of his contract; Fred and his wife have been speaking out against radical Islam for quite a long time.
I wouldn’t use the word “stunt”. I don’t think he was insincere. But the DCRTV stories, all of them, suggest he wanted out of his contract.