April 24, 2023, was one of the most consequential days in cable news history. Fox News fired Tucker Carlson. CNN fired Don Lemon. Two of the biggest names in the business were gone before noon.
At the time, many believed Fox News had made a catastrophic mistake. The prevailing theory was simple: Tucker Carlson was so dominant at 8 PM ET that losing him would irreparably damage the brand. Three years later, that theory hasn’t aged well.
Let’s be fair about what happened immediately after. There was a ratings slump. That’s almost always going to happen when a network parts ways with its biggest star. Audiences don’t transfer overnight, and the 8 PM ET window felt uncertain for a stretch.
Critics were ready to write Fox News’s obituary. But the network didn’t spiral. It stabilized, recalibrated, and moved forward.
Fox News Stayed Strong
Jesse Watters stepped into the 8 PM slot, and the results have been, frankly, remarkable. During the first quarter of this year, Jesse Watters Primetime averaged 3.4 million viewers. For context, Carlson averaged 3.2 million viewers in the first quarter of 2023 — the final months before his exit.
Yes, measurement methodologies have evolved. Yes, the media landscape has shifted. But the core point stands: Fox News didn’t miss a beat.
Carlson’s post-Fox trajectory, however, tells a different story. He launched Tucker on Twitter and initially saw a surge of digital interest. Audiences were curious. The rebellious outsider narrative was compelling. Then Elon Musk renamed the platform X — arguably one of the top five digital blunders in recent memory, but that’s a conversation for another day — and that branding had to change. So did Carlson’s strategy. He embraced digital video outlets like YouTube and TikTok upon the creation of the Tucker Carlson Network.
Beyond the platform drama, Tucker Carlson’s positioning has shifted in ways that appear to have cost him. He stumped aggressively for President Donald Trump during the 2024 election.
Since then, he’s reversed course, consistently and publicly criticizing the President — particularly regarding the war in Iran. That pivot hasn’t gone unnoticed, and the data suggests it’s done real damage to how audiences perceive him.
Tucker By the Numbers
A recent UMass-Lowell/YouGov study paints a striking picture. Carlson’s overall favorability sits at just 17%, while 31% view him unfavorably. Among men — traditionally one of his core audience groups — 43% hold an unfavorable opinion. That number climbs to 47% among those 65 and older.
Consider that for a moment. Fox News’s viewership is largely comprised of that 65+ demographic. Nearly half of those same viewers now view Tucker Carlson unfavorably, just three years after he was viewed as so important to the Fox News brand that the network might not survive without him.
It doesn’t stop there. The skepticism isn’t limited to Democrats, liberals, or independents. Among Republicans, 24% hold an unfavorable view of Carlson. Another 35% say they have no opinion of him at all. Only 31% of Republicans view him favorably.
For a figure who built his brand on being the voice of a political movement, those numbers are difficult to explain away.
Fox News, meanwhile, keeps humming along. Watters is thriving. The network’s overall footprint remains dominant in cable news. Advertisers haven’t fled. They’ve actually embraced the network in droves. The machine didn’t break. Reports of Fox News’ death were greatly exaggerated.
That’s the real story of the past three years. When Carlson was fired by Fox News — regardless of whether or not it had to do with the network’s settlement with Dominion Voting Systems — conventional wisdom said Fox News needed him more than he needed Fox News. The evidence now suggests the opposite was true.
Networks are built on systems, audiences, and institutional strength. Stars come and go. The ones who forget that tend to find out the hard way.
Tucker Carlson found out the hard way. Fox News didn’t.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
