Fox Ratings Plummet After Tucker Carlson’s Departure
Since the ouster of Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ ratings have plummeted. The demo ratings (based on viewers aged 25-54) released yesterday from Tuesday night reveal every show on Fox from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. significantly dropped in numbers. “The Five” was down 7 percent, Brett Baier’s “Special Report” was down 23 percent, “Jesse Watters Primetime” was down 35 percent, “Hannity” was down 44 percent, and “The Ingraham Angle” was down 20 percent. Carlson’s old 8 p.m. time slot was hit the hardest — down nearly 70 percent compared to last Tuesday.
And it’s not just ratings that have been hurting at Fox. Within minutes of Carlson’s unceremonious departure, Fox Corporation lost $1 billion in stock value.
Wednesday night, Carlson posted a video to Twitter in which he heavily criticized the corporate media’s controlled narrative, exposed our “one-party state,” and hinted at his future plans. Within a few hours of its posting, Tucker’s video received more than double the views his old Fox News time slot received.
The staggering views on Tucker’s latest Twitter video are a strong indication that whatever his plans are next, there is a dedicated audience ready to follow him.
Many conservatives have become wildly disillusioned with Fox by Tucker’s removal from the network. Arguably the most influential leader of the new right was ejected from his prime-time television slot with what appears to have been no warning and poor reasoning.
Carlson’s message last night, however, was uplifting, encouraging his distressed listeners to have hope and, most importantly, to be courageous. “Our current orthodoxies won’t last,” he said. “The people in charge … they’re afraid. They’ve given up persuasion [and are] resorting to force. But it won’t work. When honest people say what’s true calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful.”
Tucker also gave his listeners hope for the future of American media, nothing that while “there aren’t many places left” where Americans can discuss “true things,” “there are some and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope.”
Tucker’s mega-viral Twitter video, which now has more than 17 million views, is a strong example of how powerful alternative media has become. The corporate networks do indeed have power and control, but other platforms, such as podcasts, substacks, outlets like The Federalist, live streams, chat rooms, reels, and TikToks, are just as influential, if not more so, than the legacy media.
As Carlson showed, alternative media have power — another reason why censorship must be opposed, no matter where it crops up and whom it targets. The legacy media refuse to platform voices like Carlson’s, but they also hate that they have lost influence to the alternative platforms, so they are constantly on the prowl to help tech companies shut down alternative voices. The fight to publicize the truth will be continuous, but as Tucker said, so “long as you can hear the words, there is hope.”
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