The prime-time viewership for Newsmax more than doubled in the second quarter as the news channel held on to a good portion of the gains it made after Tucker Carlson left Fox News, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.
"We definitely saw a dramatic increase after Tucker," said Christopher Ruddy, Newsmax CEO. "The departure obviously jolted a lot of his strong supporters."
In all, Newsmax attracted 247,000 prime-time viewers in the period through June 25 — a dramatic jump from 111,000 in the first quarter.
Newsmax viewership soared after Carlson's last show aired on Fox News on April 21. Newsmax had averaged 334,000 during the last week in April.
The Journal noted that Newsmax's average rating in the second quarter topped the period of the 2020 election when it had gained viewers as a result of Donald Trump supporters upset about the election results.
Fox News' ratings fell by 22% in the second quarter to about 1.7 million prime-time viewers.
Fox News declined to comment on the Journal story, which pointed out that Jesse Watters took over Carlson's 8 p.m. ET slot and averaged 2.3 million viewers in the first week starting July 17. The number is higher than the 1.6 million who turned in the week before Watters moved to the time slot, but lower than Carlson's viewership.
Immediately after Carlson's firing Fox News witnessed a collapse in ratings — especially in its 8 p.m. ET prime-time slot.
For years Carlson owned this prime-time slot for Fox News, drawing an average 3.2 million viewers a night.
Less than a week after Carlson was ousted, Fox News saw a catastrophic drop to just 1.3 million viewers — a 59% drop from Carlson's average rating.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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