Tucker Carlson may no longer be hosting a show on the Fox News Channel, but he still knows how to pull in an audience.
His two-minute self-made video posted Wednesday night drew 1.8 million views on Twitter in less than an hour, more than the 8 p.m. Eastern audience of “Fox News Tonight,” which replaced “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” according to Mediate.
“Fox News Tonight,” hosted this week by Brian Kilmeade, drew 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday. Mr. Carlson drew an average of 3.3 million viewers last year, making his show the second-highest-rated program in cable television, behind only Fox’s “The Five.”
He posted the tweet at 8 p.m. Eastern, his old time slot. After about an hour, his video knocking the media establishment had drawn 3.6 million viewers, as shown on screenshots posted on Twitter.
The numbers just kept going up from there.
Mr. Carlson’s “Twitter Video now has 42M views,” tweeted conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Thursday morning. “His average viewership on Fox News was 3M. That means Tucker’s first crack at making his own content outside corporate censorship delivered 15x the viewers.
Mr. Johnson concluded: “Tucker is an animal. This is the end of cable news as we know it.”
Donald Trump Jr. added on Thursday morning: “5 million views on the video & 45 on the tweet. Legacy media will do everything in its power to make sure Tucker has no voice through 2024.”
Stacking up views on social media against a cable television audience isn’t an even comparison. For one, watching videos on Twitter is free, while only cable subscribers may tune in to the Fox News Channel.
At the same time, the millions of views on Mr. Carlson’s first public statement since his sudden Monday split with Fox News Media reflect the former host’s enormous following and influence.
“While it is not an apples to apples comparison, with cable news ratings reflecting the number of viewers who stayed watching,” Mediaite noted, “the views on Carlson’s video demonstrate the immense popularity of the former Fox News star even without institutional backing.”
By Thursday afternoon, Mr. Carlson’s video tweet had reached 58 million views.
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
Mr. Carlson didn’t disclose his plans for the future, but hinted that there were still media platforms where people say “true things.”
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places, but there are some and that’s enough,” he said.
But “as long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon,” he concluded.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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