CNN's top anchor Rick Sanchez was fired abruptly Friday afternoon, one day after he made a controversial about Jews on a satellite radio show.

Appearing on the XM Sirius radio program "Stand-Up with Pete Dominick" to tout his new book on Thursday, the Cuba-born newscaster made a controversial remark on Jon Stewart, a Jewish host of a satirical news program on Comic Central, calling him "a bigot" who was bigoted against "everybody else who's not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?"

"I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah," he said when pressed by host Pete Dominick.

Rick Sanchez "is no longer with the company," CNN said in a statement released on Friday. "We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well."

CNN did not reveal why it has fired the host. It is widely believed his conterversial comment on Jew may be the hidden cause.

Sanchez has hosted two-hour "Rick's List" on CNN's afternoon lineup since January. As with Sanchez's previous broadcast, "Rick's List" focused on using social networking including Twitter to create a "national conversation" about the news. The show ended this week as the time slot is being filled by a new show featuring former New York Govenor Eliot Spitzer and columnist Kathleen Parker.