After Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News this past Monday, the network has witnessed a collapse in ratings — especially in its 8 p.m. ET prime-time slot.
For years Tucker Carlson owned this prime time for Fox, drawing an average 3.2 million viewers a night.
Not anymore.
This week, Fox News Channel saw its audience during the Carlson hour plummet, with 2.6 million tuning in Monday to watch.
Things got even worse for Fox on Tuesday, with 1.7 million viewers tuning in.
But Wednesday, Fox saw a catastrophic drop to just 1.3 million viewers — a 59% drop from Carlson's average rating.
Fox has not announced a new host for the slot and appears to be rotating popular network figures such as Brian Kilmeade.
While Fox is hemorrhaging viewers, Newsmax is the primary beneficiary.
Within the cable universe, Newsmax saw its average audience at 8 p.m. with "Eric Bolling The Balance" soar by 261% to an average 534,000 viewers.
But Newsmax notes that it's available in 24 million fewer cable homes than Fox, making its viewership even more impressive for its cable distribution.
Nielsen data indicates that Newsmax was drawing 57% of Fox's audience on a proportional basis Wednesday at 8 p.m.
And Newsmax is free currently on most major OTT (over the top) platforms, giving it a boost of 400,000 additional viewers at the 8 p.m. hour not counted by Nielsen.
Newsmax even beat CNN based on proportional viewership with a .43 share against "Anderson Cooper 360" at just .37.
MSNBC, however, was also a winner Wednesday, with "All in With Chris Hayes" topping Fox with close to 1.34 million viewers.
Fox's decision to remove Carlson appears to have been shortsighted, with little planning for a replacement.
Carlson's departure came after Fox's startling $787 million settlement made two weeks ago with Dominion Voting Systems.
While some have pointed to Carlson's involvement in the case, neither Fox nor Carlson has disclosed the reason for his dismissal.
On Wednesday, Fox's sister company, SkyNews Australia, offered a lengthy editorial slamming the former host claiming he was "sacked essentially for thinking that he was bigger than Fox News."
Carlson himself has not criticized Fox, but in a Twitter video released earlier this week he decried woke culture and said, "At the same time the liars, who are trying to silence them, honest people, shrink. They become weaker."
Fox's ratings this week suggest that reality.
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