Since ousting host Tucker Carlson, the Fox News Channel’s primetime ratings in the coveted 25-54 demographic have been in freefall, Newsweek reported.
Based on figures from Adweek, Fox has lost around 50 percent of its audience during Carlson’s former time slot.
Last Friday, Fox’s 8:00 pm ratings in the 25-54 demo drew a measly 90,000. In first place was MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” which landed 145,000 viewers in the demo.
But it wasn’t just during the 8:00 pm hour that Fox was feeling the pinch.
Mediaite reported that last Friday, MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow” topped the 9:00 pm slot for viewers, with 2.28 million overall viewers, followed by Hannity with 1.98 million and “CNN Primetime” with 432,000 viewers.
Maddow also topped Hannity among the 25-54 demographic with 210,000 viewers to Hannity’s 171,000, with “CNN Primetime” following behind with only 107,000.
During the 10:00 pm slot, MSNBC’s “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” bested Fox’s “The Ingraham Angel” in overall viewers with 1.61 million to Ingraham’s 1.56 million. Among the 25-54 demographic, Ingraham was in the lead with 169,000 viewers compared to O’Donnell’s 129,000, according to Mediaite.
Ratings watcher RoadMN said on Twitter that Fox’s primetime average last Friday in the 25-54 demographic was 94,667 while MSNBC’s primetime average was 138,000. In overall viewers, Fox’s primetime average still placed it at the top of the heap, but just barely.
In a tweet earlier this week, The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis observed that after firing Tucker Carlson, Fox News is “suffering a cataclysmic primetime ratings drop.”
In 2022, Tucker Carlson averaged 3 million viewers, making “Tucker Carlson Tonight” the second most popular cable news show last year.
On Tuesday, Carlson posted a video on Twitter announcing that he would be “bringing a new version” of his Fox show to the social media platform.
In less than two days, Carlson’s tweet was viewed over 118 million times while the video itself was viewed more than 24 million times.
