Fox’s Post-Tucker Ratings Could Spell Worse Things to Come
Things are getting ugly at Fox News.
It’s been a week since Tucker Carlson hosted his last show on Fox News, and the aftermath has been pretty ugly.
Viewership of Carlson’s coveted prime-time slot has dropped precipitously since Fox announced Monday that they were parting ways with the anchor. Carlson was the network’s most popular star, bringing in millions of viewers, including among younger adults. Since his departure, viewers of his 8 p.m. time slot have dropped by half.
And the fast-waning number of viewers is affecting all of Fox News. Shows including Hannity and The Ingraham Angle have lost at least a third of viewers since Carlson left, according to Media Matters. Instead many people are switching to ultraconservative rival Newsmax.
It looks like Carlson’s unceremonious firing hasn’t been good for anyone. Carlson himself returned to social media Wednesday night with a weird, vague, and vaguely threatening video that looks like it was filmed in a sauna. As for Fox, it’s not confirmed why they let Carlson go, but no doubt there were some hopes that doing so would create more stability at the network, not less.
Fox is facing a host of legal cases. Having just settled with Dominion Voting Systems, the network is now dealing with a lawsuit from Smartmatic, which has said it will demand an on-air apology and retraction of the false claims that its electronic voting machines were used to rig the 2020 election.
Former Fox producer Abby Grossberg is also suing the network, alleging she was coerced into lying during the Dominion lawsuit, accusing the company and Carlson’s show in particular of having an openly sexist, toxic work environment.
Multiple advertisers fled Carlson’s show in recent years over his incendiary commentary. If Fox had been hoping to coax them back after his departure, their case for a return is weakening just as fast as their viewers leave. As Media Matters points out, this is incredibly dangerous. It’s anybody’s guess what Fox will do to try and win back viewers that apparently thrive on the kind of rhetoric and conspiracy theories Carlson pushed.