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‘That’s stunning!’ Megyn Kelly dishes on Fox News numbers

May 5, 2023 | | Print Article

Megyn Kelly, who was rocking a t-shirt that read “Female: The real thing,” shared what she said was a seven-day average of Fox News viewership on her popular podcast Thursday to state that the network has lost almost two-thirds of its audience since parting ways with Tucker Carlson.

“We averaged the seven days that Tucker’s been gone from Fox News and compared it with just the last week he was in the seat at 8 pm. His overall number, that’s everybody who is watching, is down almost 50 percent — it’s down 47 without him,” Kelly said. “The key advertising demo, which is the number they care about — 25 to 54-year-olds — is down 59 percent at 8 pm. Fifty-nine —  they’ve lost almost two-thirds of the audience that helps pay their bills. They’re left with about a third of their audience.”

“I mean that’s stunning and I looked up and down the board at the rest of the prime time which, with all due respect to the daytime, is all anyone gives a sh*t about over there at Fox News. The prime time pays the bills. Period,” she added.

The news was welcomed by those on the right looking to send a message via peaceful protesting:

Having spent 12 years at Fox News, Kelly may know about what matters at the network. In setting up her assertion, Kelly took her former employer to task for going “completely jihad” on her friend Tucker Carlson while comparing Fox News to Bud Light, which is still mired in the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco.

“Fox News decided it knew better and it wouldn’t show its audience even the courtesy of telling them why — never mind Tucker — why he was being fired, [why] they were canning their number one host,” she said. “And since then they’ve gone completely jihad on the guy. I mean, they are engaged in a sustained campaign to destroy — it’s not going to work, Tucker’s audience sees what they’re doing.”

“What I have said before is what I believe, a campaign orchestrated from within most likely by Irena Briganti, who hated Tucker, is working with the mainstream to just demonize him even further as a racist lunatic who needed to go,” Kelly said, before citing reporting from various media outlets.

Briganti is the senior executive vice president of Corporate Communications at Fox News, and Kelly has suggested she is behind a number of outtakes of Carlson chatting up others when his show was over or on a break. Fox News refuted the claim.

“This is completely false and an outright lie,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.

The network also addressed left-wing propaganda group Media Matters in a letter.

“We write on behalf of FOX Corporation to clarify any misunderstandings Media Matters may have had regarding previously unaired footage that Media Matters has published in a series of articles headlined ‘FOXLEAKS.’ That unaired footage is FOX’s confidential intellectual property; FOX did not consent to its distribution or publication; and FOX does not consent to its further distribution or publication,” the letter reads.

“This proprietary material was given to you without FOX’s authorization. FOX demands that Media Matters cease and desist from distribution, publication, and misuse of Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage, which you are now on notice was unlawfully obtained. We reserve all rights and remedies,” it continues.

As for those on social media, they believe the ratings prove that having f**ked around, Fox News is now finding out — then again, the long-term outcome is what really matters here.

Will the audience return? History shows us that voters certainly have short memories.

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

Editor’s Note: This post was updated to include the statement by a Fox News spokesperson and the contents of a letter sent to Media Matters.

Tom Tillison
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