Newsmax sees ratings surge as Fox News bleeds viewers after Tucker Carlson ouster

According to Nielsen, Carlson’s last episode with Fox drew 2.65 million viewers, but Brian Kilmeade’s fill-in for “Fox News Tonight” fetched only 2.59 million viewers on Monday, 1.7 million on Tuesday, and 1.33 million on Wednesday.

Carlson drew about 3 million viewers on his last Wednesday with the network.

The decline affected Sean Hannity in the 9 pm slot as well. “Hannity” drew 2.5 million viewers on Monday, 2 million on Tuesday, and 1.7 million on Wednesday, according to Nielsen, but the Wednesday before, Hannity drew 2.6 million viewers.

Laura Ingraham’s “The Ingraham Angle” dropped to 1.55 million viewers on Wednesday after drawing 2.156 million on Wednesday, April 19.

Jesse Watters also saw a decline on Wednesday, with only 1.558 million viewers compared with the previous week of 2.1 million.

Gutfeld was the only Fox News primetime show that actually saw an increase. Going from 1.8 million viewers last Wednesday to 2.02 million this Wednesday. According to Nielsen data in March, Tucker Carlson Tonight was No. 1 for that month with 3.3 million on average, Hannity held an average of 2.6 million viewers, Ingraham grabbed 2 million viewers, and Gutfeld saw 1.9 million viewers.

Newsmax has benefited from Carlson’s exit as its ratings have climbed, according to Nielsen.

Eric Bolling’s 8 pm show on Newsmax drew 510,000 viewers Wednesday night, up from 168,000 the week before, according to Nielsen. Bolling drew 562,000 viewers on Tuesday, up from 122,000 the prior week.

Newsmax’s chief executive, Christopher Ruddy, told the New York Times, “Fox has been moving to embrace more of an establishment position. They want to renounce some of the Trumpisms and populist MAGA stuff that Tucker was echoing,” he said, adding that he wants to “embrace all sides of the Republican Party.”

Newsmax noted last week that it is “available in 24 million fewer cable homes than Fox, making its viewership even more impressive for its cable distribution.” According to Nielsen, Newsmax was drawing about 57 percent of Fox’s audience on a proportional basis on Wednesday for the 8 pm slot.

No explanation has been given for Carlson’s sudden departure but the former Fox Host did release a 2-minute video on his Twitter page that drew tens of millions of viewers, besting the viewers of all cable networks combined.