Fox News Tops May Ratings But Sees Viewership Fall After Dropping Tucker Carlson From Primetime

Ted Johnson
·2 min read
100
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The month of May was the first full month without cable news’ top primetime host, Tucker Carlson, and it showed.

Fox News continued to top primetime and total day viewers, but the margins have narrowed considerably with MSNBC, which was the only major cable news network to see viewership gains.

More from Deadline

Fox News averaged 1.42 million viewers in primetime, a 37% drop from the same month a year ago. MSNBC averaged 1.16 million viewers, an increase of 14% from May, 2022. CNN averaged 494,000, a drop of 25%.

In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 135,000, down 62% from a year ago. MSNBC averaged 120,000, up 14%, while CNN posted 113,000, down 25%.

In total day, Fox News averaged 1.09 million viewers, down 25%, while MSNBC posted 736,000, up 16% and CNN fell 17% to 416,000. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News topped with 126,000, down 45%, while MSNBC averaged 85,000, up 21%. CNN posted 84,000, down 21%.

Since dropping Carlson in April, Fox News has filled the slot with a series of guest hosts. Carlson averaged 3.25 million viewers in March, his last full month on the air and when his shows featured January 6th security footage, while the temporary hosts have averaged about half of that. Fox News has still been winning the 8 p.m. time period, but Newsmax appears to have picked up some of the former Tucker viewers, as Eric Bolling’s show has seen a viewership spike.

Fox News’ The Five topped cable news shows in total viewers, averaging 2.63 million, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime with 2.14 million, Hannity with 1.91 million, Special Report with Bret Baier with 1.81 million and Gutfeld! with 1.65 million.

In the 25-54 demo, The Five topped with 276,000, followed by Gutfeld! with 224,000, Jesse Watters Primetime with 194,000, Special Report with Bret Baier with 187,000 and Hannity with 178,000.

The averages are for shows M-F. MSNBC touted The Rachel Maddow Show as number one in its time slot in total viewers and the 25-54 demo in its Monday airing. Maddow’s show averaged 2.31 million total viewers and 243,000 in the 25-54 demo. Alex Wagner Tonight airs the rest of the week.

The numbers are from Nielsen via Fox News and MSNBC.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.