OPINION| Syndicated with permission via Valiant News| Tom Pappert|
Fox News’ viewership during the 8 p.m. hour – previously dominated by “Tucker Carlson Tonight” – has been cut in half less than one week after the network parted ways with Tucker Carlson on Monday.
A meager 1.33 million viewers watched Fox News at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, down from 2.65 million who watched Carlson’s unexpected final episode on Friday, and less than half of the 3 million viewers who watched most episodes of Carlson’s nightly broadcast, according to CNN.
Here's a chart showing Fox News' ratings decline in the 8pm hour since Tucker Carlson's firing. More in @ReliableSources: https://t.co/VvIpYVbwJg pic.twitter.com/l8UPaPKaZ9
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 28, 2023
Worse, the network only had 124,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 demographic, and Oliver Darcy reports they are “the worst weekday ratings in the key demo since the pre-9/11 era,” signalling these are likely the worst ratings for Fox News in more than 20 years:
Fox News also delivered its lowest 25-54 non-holiday Wednesday audience in prime time (8p-11p) since pre-9/11. And it’s unclear how long this pattern — mirroring the one that led the network to make regrettable editorial decisions in the wake of the 2020 election — will last.
Searching for populist content during the coveted 8 p.m. prime time slot, CNN reports that viewers appear to be drifting to Newsmax, which tripled its audience to 510,000 viewers in Carlson’s absence. The New York Times notes that Newsmax has largely framed Carlson’s dismissal as a Murdoch family decision to move the network left.
Since Carlson left the network on Monday, new details have emerged showing Carlson’s apparent feud with Fox News management. The latter apparently sought to control “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and unnamed sources lamented that, despite five layers of editorial control, Carlson ultimately created his own show.
In one such example, Carlson was apparently upset when Fox News lawyers persuaded a court to seal text messages in which Carlson referred to an unnamed executive as “the c-word.” He wanted the texts to go public.
On Wednesday, the same day Fox News reported its dismal ratings, Carlson posted a video to Twitter during his prior time slot, referring to cable news as “irrelevant” and “stupid” and promising “there is hope” for the future.
