Fox News 8 pm Viewership Down Sharply Since Tucker Carlson's Ouster

Fox News viewership in the 8 pm hour is thus far down at least 50% since Tucker Carlson’s ouster was announced on Monday and his eponymous primetime hour was in turn replaced with Fox News Tonight.

What turned out to be the series finale of Tucker Carlson Tonight last Friday drew 2.7 million viewers, whereas Fox News Tonight — which this week has been hosted by Brian Kilmeade — at last count drew 1.33 million viewers.

The week-to-week comp is even more bleak, with Carlson’s final Wednesday outing drawing 3 million, to Kilmeade’s 1.33 mil.

The story with the demo (cable news courts the 25-54 crowd) offers a similarly stark contrast. Carlson’s final Wednesday telecast delivered 357,000 viewers in that target demo, whereas Fox News Tonight this Wednesday drew 124K — or a decline of 65%.

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Lead-outs Hannity and The Ingraham Angle, in turn, have also seen viewership declines since the change-up.

Lawrence Jones (Fox News screenshot)

That said, Fox News Tonight is still easily besting all rivals. Through Wednesday, it is averaging 1.9 million total viewers and 189,000 viewers in the demo, compared to MSNBC’s 1.45 million/169K and CNN’s 683K/155K in the 8 pm hour. (Former Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter is hearing that Lawrence Jones is on deck to host Fox News Tonight next week.)

And overall in primetime, FNC is averaging 1.87 million total viewers and 183K in the demo, versus MSNBC’s 1.55 mil/1282K and CNN’s 599K/131K.

Lastly, it has to be noted that Fox News has a well-chronicled history of bouncing back (and then some) from major exits/parting of ways, ultimately growing as it replaced the likes of Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Greta Van Susteren.

Who is seemingly gaining from Fox News’ losses? Comparing this Monday to the week prior, NewsMax’s Eric Bolling-anchored 8 pm hour nearly tripled its (admittedly meager) audience, growing from 146,000 to 531,000 viewers. And at last tally, Bolling on Wednesday played to 562K.

Data points above culled from the New York Times, Media Matters and other sources.

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