After white nationalist prime-time host Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News on April 24, Media Matters found that the network’s 8:00 p.m. hour experienced a 49% drop in average viewership. With Fox News experiencing its first full month as a Carlson-less network, and as a number of rotating guest hosts for the 8:00 p.m. hour flounder, Fox’s ratings have continued to nose dive.
In an updated analysis of the network’s ratings (data courtesy of Ad Week and Mediaite), Media Matters found that total viewership for Fox’s 8:00 p.m. hour dropped by 55% during the month of May (1.5 million average viewers) compared to Carlson’s 2022 average (3.3 million). The 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. hours have also continued to experience the fallout from Carlson’s departure, with their May 2023 ratings respectively dropping 37% and 35% from their average 2022 nightly viewership. (The 9 p.m. hour averaged 1.8 million in May 2023 and 2.8 million for 2022, while the 10 p.m. averaged 1.5 million in May 2023 and 2.3 million for 2022.)
