Fox New’s rating data proved that Carlson was one of their top rating performers. Just a month after his show debuted, the network’s ratings rose by 25%. Fox News executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, has said that “Viewers have overwhelmingly responded to the show and we look forward to him being a part of Fox News’ powerful primetime line-up.”
Viewers now started to look for Carlson whenever they turned on Fox News, he was on a few shows now, so it would be hard to miss him. The future was finally starting to look bright again for Carlson.
Fox News Loves Carlson
In March 2013, Carlson got promoted from being a contributor and guest host at Fox News to being a co-host for the weekend edition of the conservative daily morning news and talk show “Fox & Friends”. His fellow co-hosts were non-other than Alisyn Camerota and Clayton Morris. It aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
After a long rough patch, it seemed as though Carlson had finally found a place to call home. His hard work and perseverance looked like it was finally beginning to pay off.
Carlson Gets His Big Shot
On November 14, 2016, Carlson premiered on Fox News’s “On the Record ” , following the departure of the show’s former host. Two months later, in January 2017, the network announced that “On the Record ” would be taking the place of “The Kelly File”, which would be replaced with “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in April 2017.
With 3.7 million viewers in late 2017, its first episode was “the network’s most-watched telecast of the year in the time slot” . In the third quarter of 2018, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was third in a list of the 10 most viewed cable news programs, boasting an average audience of 2,775,000 viewers .
Night Time Slot
2017 must have been Carlson's year! On April 19, the network released an official announcement that "Tucker Carlson Tonight" would replace Fox News’ 8 PM time slot. This was after Bill O’Reilly's show, "The O’Reilly Factor", was canceled.
You know what they say, "when one door closes another door opens", well, in this case, when Bill O’Reilly's door closed, it left Carlon's wide open. You don't get opportunities like that every day. The question was, would he live up to the expectations?
Carlson Didn't Disappoint
Fox News was proud that they place their bets on Carlson. Just two months after "Tucker Carlson Tonight" premiered it averaged 2.8 million viewers. A 23% increase in total viewership from the 7 PM slot. Furthermore, according to Nielsen Media Research, he was captivating more viewers than both his former networks, CNN and MSNBC. We can only wonder what his former employers thought about that...
Carlson's enchanting charisma kept viewers engaged. There were even many liberal viewers that tuned in to what Carlson had to say about certain topics. He soon became the most popular host on Fox News.