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 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 .
Numbers Don't Lie
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.
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.
A Leap of Faith
Fox News had a few contestants, some big names, in fact, that were also considered as a replacement for Bill O’Reilly's show. While the others were also talented, the network decided to go with someone familiar to the viewers. Plus they preferred someone from their "family" rather than some high-profile talent that didn't know how their network operates. Moreover, they believed seeing a friendly face would help their audience handle the change better.
Their gut feeling was correct. Carlson's show kept the network's viewership up, even after one of their favorite shows had been taken off the air.