A new survey conducted by the polling firm Rasmussen has found that former superstar Fox News host Tucker Carlson is still far more popular with Americans than his former employer, Fox News.
Specifically, the Rasmussen Reports poll found that Tucker Carlson remains popular among both conservatives and likely Republican voters. “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of likely U.S. voters have a favorable impression of Carlson, including 36% who have a Very Favorable opinion of him,” Rasmussen noted in its report on the [oll.
Continuing, it also noted that many people quite dislike Tucker, saying, “Thirty-four percent (34%) view Carlson unfavorably, including 25% with a Very Unfavorable impression.”
Fox news, on the other hand, didn’t do as well with likely voters. While the generally favorable impression result was somewhat close, with Fox News having a 52% favorable rating to Tucker’s 59%. It was in the “very favorably” category that Tucker really blew Fox News out of the water, with Fox News only having 24% view it very favorably compared to Tucker’s 36%.
Additionally, far more people viewed Fox News unfavorably than Tucker unfavorable: 42% viewed Fox News unfavorably, with 28% having a very unfavorable view. That’s compared to 34% and 25%, respectively, for Tucker.
Rasmussen also noted that few thought that Tucker’s exit would help Fox News. According to its report, only 19 percent of voters thought it would positively affect the network. On the other hand, 32 percent believed that his departure would actually lower the quality of the news platform and 42 percent of voters did not think that Carlson’s exit would make any significant difference to Fox.
The likely reason for the difference in how Tucker and Fox News are viewed is that Tucker is still well liked by the more conservative segment of society, whereas Fox News, in getting rid of him, angered that segment. So, whereas Tucker is disliked generally by the left and well-like by conservatives, Fox News is disliked by both Tucker Carlson’s former audience, the populist right, and the left.
That dislike can be easily seen in the ratings crash Fox News experienced after ousting Tucker, as The Detroit News reported, saying:
“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade temporarily filled the time slot last week; this week, Fox News personality Lawrence Jones will host.
The disparity was most stark on Wednesday, when Kilmeade’s 8 p.m. hour received an average of 1.3 million total viewers compared with the 3 million Carlson received a week earlier – a decline of 56 percent.
[…]Fox still holds a commanding lead over the competition on MSNBC and CNN. And the network has weathered similar short-term declines in the past, including a minor dip after Bill O’Reilly was pushed out of the network in 2017. He was replaced by Carlson, who had the most-watched show in all of cable news in 2021 – eclipsing Sean Hannity, who earned that title between 2017 and 2020. The 5 p.m. panel show “The Five” was the network’s most-watched show in 2022, and is tracking that way again in 2023.
Fox News, for its part, has remained calm and acted like it’s still doing as well as it was before ousting Tucker, saying, “For more than 21 years, Fox News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC. Attracting more than 50 percent of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, Fox News’ powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source.“
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