Tucker Carlson Trounces The Kelly File in Ratings

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M DOWLING
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Tucker’s Off to a Great Start

Tucker Carlson Tonight replaced The Kelly File with Megan Kelly and Fox fans who stopped watching Kelly over her nightly tirades against Donald Trump, have returned. Many commented on social media that they can now have three uninterrupted hours of Fox cable viewing.

Carlson pummels his left-wing guests night after night and many worry he’ll run out of willing victims. It’s not that he’s unfair, it’s that he asks challenging questions and presses for the truth.

He’s winning in the ratings. For example, on January 12, Carlson won the ratings war over allegedly stiff competition from CNN’s Paul Ryan Town Hall and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, TV Newser reported.

Accuracy in Media found that Carlson averaged 493,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demo, beating out CNN’s town hall special with Bernie Sanders (414,000) and The Rachel Maddow Show (324,000).

Overall, Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 2.699 million total viewers, nearly beating the combined total of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (1.369 million) and CNN’s town hall special (1.357 million).

Compared to Megan Kelly’s numbers on the same day last year, Carlson was up 27 percent in total viewers and a whopping 45 percent in the key 25-54 demographic.

Putting Tucker Carlson in place of Megan Kelly turned out to be a great idea so far.

Megyn Kelly Might Not Have It as Easy

On the other hand, Megyn Kelly might not fare as well. It will be surprising if she takes her viewers with her and the NBC viewers might not be all that interested. Left-wing viewers think Fox is a faux news channel.

The former Fox News anchorwoman’s recent appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” reportedly caused the network’s ratings to plunge drastically. The segment in which she came on to hawk her book and denounce Roger Ailes, her colleagues, and Donald Trump saw ratings plummet for the time she was on the air.

Kelly will reportedly make between $15 million and $20 million per year hosting a new talk program that will take over the third hour of Today and a Sunday night news magazine. News magazines are dying and daytime talk shows haven’t seen a ratings surge in years.

Having the third hour in the morning is not the best. Viewers will have already seen four hours of serious fake news and the mostly female audience who are still at home by 9 am want something light to watch.

The night spot Kelly will have is also rough, partly because it’s Sunday night and also because people are already attached to CBS. Luring 60 Minutes viewers away will require her giving them a compelling reason.

Kelly will have to become fluffy in the morning and amazingly enticing on Sunday night.

A wide range of personalities both inside and outside the news realm have dealt with so-so ratings and relatively short-lived shows when they left their traditional network home.

A Morning Consult survey found 29 percent of Republican men and 25 percent of GOP women are less likely to watch Kelly once she moves to the peacock network.

She might be able to pull it off but she might want to put some of the $15 to $20 million in savings.

In the end, however, she will have a broader audience and she has, in the past, been able to market her image very successfully over her career.

Carlson’s Show Boosts Fox to Number One

In November, the Wrap, reported that the first week of Tucker Carlson Tonight was the third highest-rated week of the year for Fox News during the 7 p.m. timeslot, behind only election week and Republican National Convention coverage.

Thanks to Tucker and Harvey Levin of TMZ, Fox is number one in the ratings. Even ESPN and week long NFL coverage couldn’t beat Fox.

CNN finished No. 11 in total viewers and No. 13 in primetime, while MSNBC finished No. 14 in total day and No. 10 in primetime.

Many of the Fox Viewers Are Happy Megan’s Gone


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