Before it got rid of Tucker Carlson, the one populist and right-leaning host on TV, Fox News Channel was routinely destroying the woke competition at CNN and MSNBC, even blowing the combined results of those two out of the water routinely. Now, with Tucker gone, it struggles to even beat MSNBC, much less the combined results of the two channels.
Such was seen yet again when, on Monday night, Trump was indicted by Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, GA. What would have been a massive night for Fox News Channel with Tucker on the air, with millions tuning in to hear his monologue about the situation, was instead a dismal failure for the network, which got crushed by MSNBC in ratings for the night.
On that day, one that would surely have been a big win for FNC with Tucker and the energy he garnered for the network, even when not on the air. MSNBC beat both CNN and Fox News in total viewers and in the key 25-54 age demographic during the day and prime time.
MSNBC managed to bring in 1.63 million total average day viewers and 210,000 average viewers in the advertising demographic, beating FNC’s 1.52 million total viewers and 180,000 average 25-54 demographic viewers by a small but noticeable margin. CNN did as badly as ever and landed in third place with just 754,000 total average viewers and 146,000 demo viewers.
The results were even more striking in prime time. Then, MSNBC’s viewership ballooned to 3.1 million average viewers. That demolished Fox News Channel without Tucker, as it came in second with just 2.2 million total average viewers. CNN did only somewhat better than usual but was still bested significantly by FNC, which beat it by about a million, as CNN garnered only 1.2 million. MSNBC also led Monday primetime in the advertising demo pf 25-54-year-olds, winning with 415,000 viewers to Fox’s 254,000 and CNN’s 232,000.
Tucker, by contrast, brought in 8 million views on Twitter with an RFK Jr. interview, with the Kennedy family member talking about Ukraine and America’s intelligence agencies.
Ep. 16 RFK Jr. explains Ukraine, bio-labs, and who killed his uncle pic.twitter.com/RMr5VZVqSM
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 14, 2023
Tucker brought in another 12 million with a video a few days previously about January 6th and the Capitol:
Ep. 15 Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reveals what really happened on January 6th. Our Fox News interview with him never aired, so we invited him back. pic.twitter.com/opDlu4QGlp
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 10, 2023
FNC has demanded that Tucker stop posting those videos, which blow its programming out of the water, even sending him a cease and desist letter. He has so far refused to obey and one of his lawyers, Harmeet Dhillon, responded to FNC’s demand by saying, “Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election. Tucker will not be silenced by anyone.”
Another one of Tucker’s lawyers said, “Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events.”
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