Jesse Watters, the Fox News host who took heat this week for making a joke about Ivanka Trump that was criticized as lewd, said on Wednesday that he would be taking a family vacation until Monday. The move came just three days after his show began airing in a new high-profile time slot.

Mr. Watters, who denied that his comment about President Trump’s daughter was sexual, announced his upcoming absence near the end of Wednesday night’s edition of “The Five.” He will miss two days of the show’s first week in prime time after it took over the 9 p.m. slot from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and he will miss his “Watters’ World” show on Saturday.

A Fox News spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the vacation had been planned before “The Five” moved to its new time slot, or if the time off was related to the criticism Mr. Watters had received throughout much of Wednesday.

Toward the end of Wednesday’s hourlong show, Mr. Watters and his fellow hosts marveled at a wild baseball play in which a base runner leapt over the catcher to score a run, then he segued abruptly into his vacation announcement.