Fox Nation In The Tank Without Tucker Carlson

These are tough times for Fox News, the one-time flagship of conservative America. Since its ill-advised parting of ways with popular host Tucker Carlson, the network watched its empire crumble into a shell of what it once was.

A blistering report from leftist outlet the Daily Beast quoted Fox insiders as saying the streaming platform Fox Nation suffered mightily from Carlson’s departure.

Staff has been cut across the board in the wake of the network’s $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. The once-successful streaming service Fox Nation was hardly immune.

According to an internal source, “Fox Nation is basically over without Tucker. They’re not shutting it down and probably never will, but they’re really cutting it back.” 

Carlson was almost unquestionably the biggest lure for subscribers and its top original content producer. Without his draw, the streaming platform is floundering.

Fox Nation’s dramatic decline should hardly be surprising considering the profound struggles experienced by the rest of the company. May’s ratings figures reflected the sharp downturn after Carlson’s exit.

Fox News in primetime brought in 1.42 million primetime viewers on average in May, a startling 32% drop from April’s 2.08 million average. The network came in third in cable primetime viewership behind TNT and ESPN, both of which benefited from NBA playoffs programming.

Fox attempted to replace Carlson’s 8 p.m. broadcast with rotating hosts, but that fell flat. April figures for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” showed an average of 3.06 million viewers. 

For May, that number plummeted to 1.52 million.

May’s average daily audience came in at 1.09 million viewers, a 16% drop from April. On the positive side, the month marked the 27th consecutive time Fox News was crowned the most-watched cable news network.

Is there hope for Fox Nation? Recently praised by CEO Lachlan Murdoch for “accelerated subscriber growth,” it now seeks to revamp its lineup and somehow regenerate the interest once provided by Carlson’s populist message.

The streamer announced new programming with classic favorites Kevin Costner and Dan Aykroyd. It is also rolling out notably politically incorrect comedy specials from Rob Schneider and Roseanne Barr. 

But Fox Nation and the empire that birthed it still have far to go to regain former glory.