The Fox Replacement Hosts Didn’t Cut It
Fox News announced on Monday that Jesse Watters will take over Tucker Carlson’s highly coveted 8 p.m. hour on the right-of-center network. The announcement came after 9 weeks of rotating replacement hosts helming the hour, none of whom came close to Watters’s ratings at 7 p.m. or those of Carlson, who was fired in late April.
In the first quarter of 2023, Carlson averaged 3.25 million total viewers and 443,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic. While Carlson was edged out for number one in the quarter by The Five, he was on the rise and had beaten The Five in March for the highest-rated show in cable news.
After Carlson’s firing, Fox’s prime time numbers dropped sharply as the replacement hosts – understandably – were unable to recapture his viewers, some of whom were angered by Carlson’s abrupt firing. Fox lost prime time to MSNBC for the week of June 12 in both total viewers and the demo for the first time since November of 2019 — a 120-week winning streak.
Brian Kilmeade was the first host to take over at 8 for Carlson and he averaged 1.4 million total viewers for the week. Lawrence Jones (1.5 million) came next, followed by Kayleigh McEnany (1.47 million), Will Cain (1.52 million), Trey Gowdy (1.52 million), Joey Jones (1.53 million), and Harris Faulkner (1.57 million).
Kilmeade came back for the week of June 12th with a stronger 1.63 million average and McEnany helmed the hour again last week with 1.76 million. Notably, these averages do not include some major events like Gowdy’s interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) or Donald Trump speaking after his federal arraignment in Miami. Despite its dip, Fox did still win at 8 p.m. with Fox News Tonight and the rotating hosts since Carlson’s ouster. Fox led at 8 p.m. since Apr. 24 with an average 1.58 million total viewers, beating MSNBC’s 1.39 million and CNN’s 726,000.
Fox has since recaptured the number one spot in cable news in both prime time and total day viewers as the industry, in general, has seen ratings rise amid breaking news. Last week, Fox topped MSNBC in prime time with 1.6 million to 1.4 million average viewers. CNN was third with 654,000 average viewers.
Watters, whose show Jesse Watters Primetime has won its timeslot since launching some 18 months ago, regularly pulls in well over 2 million nightly viewers. During the week of June 12, for example, Watters averaged 2.14 million total viewers and 198,000 demo viewers. Year-to-date his show has averaged 2.6 million total viewers and 270,000 demo viewers, making it a bonafide hit. While the 8 p.m. replacement hosts did not receive the same kind of promotion as a regular host, the disparity between their ratings and Watters was significant, which likely goes a long way to both explaining why Watters got the job and why he was hired relatively soon after Carlson’s ouster.
