Fox News Regaining Lost Viewers

Over the past month, Fox News has regained a significant chunk of the viewers it lost after firing star host Tucker Carlson in April — thanks to a new prime-time lineup designed to capitalize on the existing loyalties of the network’s fans.

The Washington Post reports the top-rated cable-news station saw a sharp drop in viewership in spring, when the fill-in hosts who replaced Carlson at 8 p.m. averaged just 1.49 million total viewers in their first four weeks, less than half of the number that typically tuned in to his show.

But it wasn’t just at 8 p.m.: The network’s entire prime-time lineup was hurting. In the four weeks before Carlson’s exit, Fox averaged 2.6 million viewers in prime time; in the four weeks after, Fox averaged just 1.6 million — still at the top in cable news but down 39 percent.

So far, though, the early results of a new prime-time roster launched July 17 seem promising for Fox, according to Nielsen ratings. Since installing Jesse Watters in Carlson’s old slot and replacing Laura Ingraham with Greg Gutfeld at 10 p.m., Fox has averaged 2.2 million total viewers in prime time, compared with the 1.6 million viewers in the previous four weeks.

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The new prime-time hosts are both familiar Fox veterans, Watters having previously hosted a 7 p.m. show and Gutfeld having found ratings success with a late-night comedy show on the network.

“Jesse Watters Primetime” has done particularly well, averaging 2.4 million viewers, an approximately 60 percent jump over the performance of the temporary hosts who occupied the 8 p.m. hour over the previous four weeks.

Yet Watters still significantly trails Carlson, who brought in an average 3.3 million viewers a night in his last full month on Fox.

Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent company Fox Corp., has said he is “pleased” with the early returns. In an earnings report call with Wall Street analysts last week, he added that Fox is “confident that our deep bench of talent will continue to set the standard for all news services as we move towards the 2024 presidential election.”

He also dismissed speculation that Carlson’s ouster would leave a permanent wound. “Fox News’s leadership position was never at risk,” he said.