Fox News Suffers Ratings ‘Bloodbath’ after Tucker Carlson Ouster

Fox News is contending with a steep ratings drop after firing star anchor Tucker Carlson.

In the first week after Carlson’s ouster on April 24, the channel’s primetime viewership fell 29.6 percent to 1.449 million viewers, coming in third among cable networks, according to figures from Nielsen.

Viewership for the network’s 8 p.m. time slot was down 47 percent overall for that week, according to an analysis from former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. The analysis averaged the viewership from the first week of his absence and compared it with the last week he was on air. Among the key demographic of 25-54 year olds, ratings were down a whopping 59 percent.

Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged more than 3 million total viewers a night during its last week on air. Fox has since filled the 8 p.m. time slot with Fox News Tonight, which was anchored by Brian Kilmeade last week and Lawrence Jones this week.

“I looked up and down the board at the rest of the primetime, which, with respect to the daytime is all anyone gives a sh** about over at Fox News. The primetime pays the bills period,” Kelly said. “They’re all down.”

Hannity, which airs at 9 p.m., was down 39 percent with the key demo, while the 10 p.m. slot was down 24 percent with that group, according to Kelly’s analysis.

Earlier this week, she tweeted about the ratings “bloodbath” at Fox News. “Not even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer in an effort to get ppl to pls pls drink it) lost this much of its customer base,” Kelly said.

In the 8 p.m. hour, Fox News Tonight fell behind MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 in viewership among the key 25-54 age demographic on Tuesday, May 2.

The turmoil at Fox News offered a boost to Newsmax’s 8 p.m. program, which is hosted by former Fox News host Eric Bolling and notched 531,000 total viewers the day of Carlson’s firing. That’s five times larger than a week before and just 200,000 behind CNN’s program at the same time, according to the Washington Post. 

Fox News issued a statement earlier this week about the ratings drop:  “For more than 21 years, Fox News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC.”

It added: “Attracting more than 50 percent of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, Fox News’ powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source.”

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