Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, one of the few left at Fox News that people like now that Tucker is gone, finally broke his silence on Tucker’s ouster and said that he was “stunned” when he learned that Fox News had ousted Tucker.
That came when Hannity was speaking on his radio show, “The Sean Hannity Show.” Speaking about Tucker’s ouster last Monday, Hannity said that he had no idea Tucker, whose show filled the hour block before his, wouldn’t be there Monday night. In Hannity’s words:
“It’s very hard. My phone has been blowing up. The hard part for me is I don’t have a clue … I have no idea. Was it Tucker’s decision? Was it Fox’s? Was it a mutual agreement that they had? I don’t know. I guess people think that because I’ve been there the longest I’d have some knowledge or understanding of what’s going on, but… I just don’t.”
Carlson’s abrupt departure from Fox News has appeared to have hurt the ratings of other Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity. Such is what Darren Beattie’s Revolver News reported on Fox’s steep drop in viewership, saying:
On Tuesday night, during the 8:00 pm hour Fox News only attracted 1.7 million viewers, down significantly from the numbers Tucker brought in. And take a look at Hannity’s ratings. He’s down approximately a million eyeballs.
Tucker was a huge “lead-in” boost for Sean, and without those numbers, Sean could be big in trouble—Laura Ingraham, too. Keep in mind, last Tuesday when Tucker was on air at 8:00 pm, Fox news registered these numbers: 481,000/3,223,000.
Last night at 8:00 pm, without Tucker Carlson, these were the numbers: 159,333 | 1,777,000.
Fox News is down a whopping two-thirds in the key demographic.
Similarly, Megyn Kelly pointed out Fox News’ horrific ratings since Tucker was fired in a sharp and to-the-point tweet, saying, “You can’t compare Tucker’s Fri night ratings to this week’s Mon/Tue. (Fridays in prime are where ratings go to die.) Compare his last Mon/Tue to this week’s Mon/Tue. It’s a bloodbath: they lost HALF their audience.”
That was in response to a tweet thread from Brian “Mr. Potatohead” Stelter, who was fired by CNN months ago. Stelter, posting about the crisis of viewership at Fox News after Tucker was fired, said:
Fox News viewership at 8pm ET:
Tucker’s finale: 2.65 million
Monday: 2.59 million
Tuesday: 1.70 million
Wednesday: 1.33 million
On Thursday, Fox attracted 2.4 mil viewers for “The Five,” but couldn’t hold the audience. “Special Report” at 6 averaged 1.8 mil, “Jesse Watters Primetime” at 7 averaged 1.6 mil, and the Tucker replacement at 8 netted 1.46 mil. On the same day last week, Tucker drew 3 million.
One of the many wrinkles of this week: Fox’s 7pm star Jesse Watters is off this week. Fill-ins usually don’t rate as well. Despite that, more viewers are watching at 7 than 8, when it’s supposed to be the opposite. Tucker’s absence has blown a massive hole in Fox’s daily ratings.
You can’t compare Tucker’s Fri night ratings to this week’s Mon/Tue. (Fridays in prime are where ratings go to die.) Compare his last Mon/Tue to this week’s Mon/Tue. It’s a bloodbath: they lost HALF their audience. https://t.co/bH1g6epeC0
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 27, 2023
Whether Fox News will get its audience back is unclear, as many who used to watch it have switched over to its rivals, particularly Newsmax, and Newsmax is rumored to be trying to hire Tucker.
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