On Monday, Fox News decided to “part ways” with one of the most prominent political commentators, Tucker Carlson. Given that Carlson was the most-watched host on the channel, many immediately predicted this would seriously impact Fox News’ ratings.
The cable news ratings are in for Monday, April 24, the first night without Tucker Carlson, and reportedly Fox News lost nearly 1 million viewers the first night without Tucker compared to last week.
Fox loses about 1M viewers without @TuckerCarlson https://t.co/3EX1nuVaUJ
— Robert Barnes (@barnes_law) April 26, 2023
The Hollywood Reporter wrote about the drop in ratings:
Unsurprisingly, Fox News ratings suffered Monday night without the channel’s most watched host.
After the surprise of Fox News and Tucker Carlson “agree[ing] to part ways” on Monday, the network’s 8 p.m. hour had a significantly smaller audience Monday night. The debut of Fox News Tonight, hosted by Brian Kilmeade (the first in a series of rotating hosts), pulled in just under 2.6 million viewers — about 21 percent below the average for Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.3 million viewers) over the past eight Mondays.
Furthermore, reports from CBS News indicate that Fox Corporation lost over $500 million in market value when the company’s stock declined. Moreover, Fox News has attempted to replace Tucker’s spot with Brian Kilmeade, who was not well received by outraged fans of Carlson. “Maybe Gutfeld makes fun of Brian for fun – but no one is more of a RINO, company guy than Brian. Tremendously nice family guy… but that was weak,” said one social media user. “Hard pass. You should have refused. Someday @FoxNews will do to you what they did to @TuckerCarlson. It won’t matter that you dutifully bailed them out of a programming gap the size of the Grand Canyon,” said another account.
According to the statement released by Fox News Media on Tucker’s departure:
FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.
Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad-supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one cable network, FNC has been the most watched television news channel for more than 21 consecutive years, while FBN ranks among the top business channels on cable. Fox Corporation owns FOX News Media, which reaches nearly 200 million people monthly.
Many see this as a huge mistake on Fox’s behalf since Tucker is the face of conservative commentary. He has the guts to attack the woke political establishment in ways few other “conservatives” will. Maybe that’s precisely why Fox News “parted ways” with him, but who knows. Regardless of these circumstances, Carlson will likely have the popularity and stamina to continue his success on any future platform he chooses.
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