By Brittany Bernstein
Fox News is suffering from a sharp drop in ratings following the resignation of star host Tucker Carlson.
In the first week after Carlson’s departure on April 24, the channel’s primetime audience fell 29.6% to 1.449 million viewers, ranking third among cable networks, according to Nielsen data [Nielsen is the company that does TV audience measurement in the US].
According to an analysis by former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, the network’s 8 pm audience fell 47% that week.
The analysis averaged the audience for the first week of Carlson‘s absence and compared it to the last week he was on the air.
Among the target audience of 25 to 54-year-olds, ratings dropped an incredible 59%.
In its last week, the Tucker Carlson Tonight Show averaged over three million viewers per night.
Since then, Fox has filled the 8 pm time slot with Fox News Tonight, hosted by Brian Kilmeade last week and by Lawrence Jones this week.
“I looked up and down the list at the rest of the primetime schedule, which, relative to the daytime schedule, is all that matters at Fox News.”
“Primetime pays the bills, period,” Kelly said.
“All of them are in low ratings.”
According to Kelly’s analysis, the Hannity program, which airs at 9 pm, was down 39% among the target audience, while the 10 pm time slot was down 24%t with that group.
Earlier this week, she tweeted about the “bloodbath” in the Fox News audience.
“Not even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer for free in an attempt to get people to drink it again) has lost this much of its customer base,” Kelly said.
In the 8 pm time slot, Fox News Tonight lagged behind MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 in viewership among the 25- to 54-year-old target audience on Tuesday, May 2.
The turmoil at Fox News offered a boost to Newsmax’s 8 pm show, hosted by former Fox News host Eric Bolling, which reached 531,000 total viewers on the day of Carlson’s resignation.
According to the Washington Post, that’s five times higher than a week earlier and only 200,000 behind CNN’s show in the same time slot.
Fox News issued a statement earlier this week about the rating drop.
“For more than 21 years, Fox News has been the most-watched cable news network in every category, with more Democrats, independents, and Republicans tuning in now than CNN or MSNBC.”
He added, “Attracting more than 50% of the cable news watching audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, Fox News’ powerful team of journalists, analysts, and opinion hosts is considered more trusted by viewers than any other news source.”
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