Fox News ratings collapse by half with Tucker Carlson gone

Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News had a similar effect that the cross-dresser Dylan Mulvaney had on Bud Light sales. The network has now experienced a dramatic plunge in its ratings, particularly its 8 p.m. prime-time slot. It went from an average of 3.2 million with Tucker to 2.6 million without him on Monday, and the key word is "average."

On Tuesday, it looked as if the ratings were circling the bowl with a mere 1.7 million viewers tuning in--that's about as many people ride the roofs of one train in India.

Round and round the ratings circled and by Wednesday, Fox experienced a catastrophic drop to 1.3 million viewers, or a 59% drop from Tucker's average ratings.

The network has yet to announce a new host for Carlson's slot, and is rotating popular hosts to fill in for now, starting off with Brian Kilmeade.

And while Fox is circling the bowl, Newsmax is soaring as its 8 p.m. average audience with "Eric Bolling The Balance" increase by 261% to an average 534,000 viewers. Now that isn't anywhere close to what Tucker and Fox in general had, the future looks bright for the network. The fact that Newsmax is available in 24 million fewer homes than Fox, the relative viewership is quite impressive and they hope to gain even more subscribers.

Nielsen data shows that Newsmax was drawing 57% of Fox's audience on a proportional basis Wednesday at 8 p.m. and they explain that it's currently free on most major OTT (over the top) platforms, giving it 400,000 additional viewers at the 8 p.m. time slot not counted by Nielsen, and they even surpassed CNN with a .43 share against "Anderson Cooper 360" at a mere .37.

MSNBC was also a winner Wednesday, with the androgynous Chris Hayes' show, "All in With Chris Hayes" topping Fox with close to 1.34 million viewers.

All the way to the bank

Tucker posted a 2-minute video at 8:01 p.m. Wednesday and it gained over 60,000,000 views by Thursday afternoon. It did not directly attack Fox News or any of their staff nor speak of his termination, but it did suggest that he has future plans to make a media comeback, and he seemed to have made veiled swipes at his former company.

Here is some of the text of the video:

"Our current orthodoxies won't last," he said. "They're brain-dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone's life is improved by them. This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue, and so it won't.

"The people in charge know this, that's why they're hysterical and aggressive. They're afraid. They have given up persuasion, they're resorting to force. But it won't work.

"When honest people say what's true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time the liars, who are trying to silence them, shrink. They become weaker. That's the iron law of the universe. True things prevail.

"Where can you still find Americans who say true things? There aren't many places left but there are some, and that's enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope."

So we can be quite certain that Tucker Carlson will not go quietly into the night. And while you may not see eye-to-eye on everything Tucker professes, he at least has the courage to do the professing.

Most of all, do not believe everything people might say good or bad about him--especially the bad--they cannot read his mind, and they might have their own agenda for saying those things. Always consider the source.

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