Fox’s Tucker Carlson nearly doubling Kelly’s prime-time ratings
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson is nearly doubling the ratings of his predecessor, Megyn Kelly, when compared to the same time period last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” is up 95 percent in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most compared with the same period in 2016, when “The Kelly File” occupied the 9 p.m. ET time slot.
Carlson has averaged 775,000 viewers per night in the category, while Kelly averaged 398,000 during the same time period, Jan. 11–22.
{mosads}Carlson took over the 9 p.m. slot on Jan. 9, shortly after Kelly announced she would be leaving for a daytime program on NBC.
Fox had reportedly offered Kelly $100 million over four years to stay with the network last fall. The former corporate attorney-turned-broadcast journalist said spending more time with her three young children in the afternoon and evening was ultimately more important. She reportedly took less money to go to NBC, where she won’t be hosting a show every weekday night as she had at Fox.
Overall, Carlson — who has hosted programs on CNN and MSNBC in the past — is up 37 percent in total viewers, at 3.73 million, and 50 percent, at 775,000, in the key demographic compared with Kelly’s 2016 averages of 2.72 million and 515,000, respectively.
Kelly is expected to make her NBC debut in September.
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