The Numbers Are In: Trump-Tucker Team Up to Beat Fox News in Viewership Battle
It’s not the mind-blowing destruction of corporate media that many have painted it to be, but Tucker Carlson notched a solid victory over his former employer on Wednesday.
Fox News, which fired Carlson in April, hosted the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
The GOP front-runner, former President Donald Trump, skipped the event, citing his large lead in the polls.
Eight of the other candidates took the stage at the Fiserv Forum to try to make their case to Republican voters, with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum moderating.
According to Neilsen, the debate brought in 12.8 million total viewers, Mediaite reported Thursday.
BREAKING: Fox News Republican Debate Scores Whopping 12.8 Million Viewers — Even Without Trump https://t.co/17BIXJTSdx via @mediaite
— Martha MacCallum (@marthamaccallum) August 24, 2023
This figure might initially appear impressive for a GOP debate without the party’s No. 1 figure.
However, it fell short of the viewership achieved by Trump himself the same night.
The former president sat for an interview with Carlson that was posted to the social media platform X just before the debate.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
As of Thursday, the episode of “Tucker on X” with Trump had 14.8 million views, according to Mashable — topping the debate viewership by 2 million.
While undercutting the network that fired him gave Carlson plenty to smile about, his interview with the former president didn’t draw more viewers than any TV show in history — despite such claims on social media.
Mashable noted that “many people believe, falsely, that the video of Carlson’s Trump interview received 220 million views more than it actually received.”
“The video itself was actually played only 14.8 million times, for at least two seconds of the more than 46-minute interview — or just over six percent of the total 236 million times someone saw the post on X,” the outlet said.
Confusion about the metric led many to conclude Carlson’s show had more U.S. viewers than the moon landing (125 million to 150 million) or the last Super Bowl (113 million).
200M views. Tucker vs. Trump is easily the most watched interview in history.
Broadcast with no ad breaks, no corporate filter & no censorship.
Just raw, fascinating insight & honesty that users devour.
X is Breaking the media landscape —forever.
Wow.pic.twitter.com/2031qFyz2O
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 24, 2023
BREAKING: Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson breaks the internet history by having the greatest content viewership in history.
Donald Trump show has nearly 100 million views in under 3 hours since airing on Tucker Carlson show on X. pic.twitter.com/EnRm2KT9tX
— George Njoroge (@georgenjoroge_) August 24, 2023
Tucker & Trump interview on X has eclipsed 200M views plus massive clipping audience.
The primary debate on Fox News had around 20M tune in.
10X the views for Trump.
The media landscape is forever changed. pic.twitter.com/hEsXsDbKvn
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 24, 2023
Fox News debate: 12.8M viewers
Tucker/Trump: 238M viewsCorporate media is dead 🔥 pic.twitter.com/03cPOJwBkw
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 24, 2023
Though not quite as epic as that, Carlson’s viewership victory over the company that fired him can’t be dismissed.
Fox News was the go-to for conservatives for almost three decades because it provided them with content and opinions that were relevant to them as traditional news networks took a sharp left turn in the 1990s.
But the landscape has shifted again.
Conservative-oriented online shows are now stepping in to offer content that often doesn’t find its place on network TV due to bans, and Fox News appears to be gradually deviating from its foundational conservative principles.
This could perhaps explain why Fox reportedly chose to limit the reuse of debate content by other platforms.
Fox News is telling everyone in media not directly affiliated with them that the August 23rd Republican debate is exclusively theirs and no one is allowed to air any clips of the broadcast beyond three total minutes, and never again after a 7 day window. In other words, they’re… pic.twitter.com/KQ3r1ohqFW
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) August 10, 2023
It’s desperately trying to hold on to its audience — and its relevance.
But that train might have already left the station.
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