As people either tuned out of the Fox News-hosted GOP primary debate or tuned in just to see Trump-hating Chris Christie get humiliated by the booing crowd, Tucker Carlson had another episode of his X-only show,
“Tucker on X,” get tens of millions of views in minutes and hundreds of millions of views within a day of coming out.
During the interview, Trump and Tucker discussed everything from politics to how much they dislike former Fox News personality Chris Wallace, but the key highlight was obviously that Trump and Tucker were together and sucking the air out of room for the Fox News debate.
And that was a resounding success, with tens, then hundreds of millions of people watching it. Just fifteen minutes into the debate, which started right around when Tucker posted the interview, the Trump-Tucker video had already gotten 33 million views.
Then, just minutes later at the 30 minute mark, the interview had already rocketed up to a massive 70 million views. Now, about a day after it came out, the interview has already made it past the 230 million views mark, far outperforming the cable competition.
For reference, Fox News Channel is still (barely) the top cable news channel, though it sometimes gets beaten by MSNBC now that Tucker is gone. It, according to the latest Nielsen data, averages just about 1.1 million people during its daytime programming, with about 1.4 million on average during prime time.
Admittedly, that is the average for a normal night, not the debate night. And X’s viewership metrics include scroll pasts and those who watch a video for just a few seconds, not just those who watch the entire thing. But, still, the massive number of views shows that interest in the Trump-Tucker interview was high, whereas energy surrounding the actual GOP debate was relatively muted.
Trump had predicted that the interview on X would dominate the public’s attention for the night and do far better than Fox, telling Tucker, “We’ll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you are using than probably the debate.” He also said that FNC made a terrible decision in firing Tucker, saying, “I think it was a terrible move getting rid of you.”
Check out the interview here:
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Trump, announcing his decision not to attend the debate on Truth Social, said, “New CBS POLL, just out, has me leading the field by “legendary” numbers. TRUMP 62%, 46 Points above DeSanctimonious (who is crashing like an ailing bird!), Ramaswamy 7%, Pence 5%, Scott 3%, Haley 2%, Sloppy Chris Christie 2%, “Aida” Hutchinson 1%. The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had, with Energy Independence, Strong Borders & Military, Biggest EVER Tax & Regulation Cuts, No Inflation, Strongest Economy in History, & much more. I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
The interview even drew the attention of Elon Musk. He, commenting on the interview, said, “Interesting to hear things directly vs through the media filter.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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