Compared to previous months, May was as positively calm and inviting as can be for the world of cable news, without any major personalities getting shown the door. Indeed, it was the first full month of programming for Fox News without its former viewership king Tucker Carlson, who notably parted ways with the network in April for reasons that still aren’t 100% confirmed, even if the rumor mill worked overtime on generating reasons. And to be expected, the numbers were markedly down across the board for the entire month, even if it wasn’t all bad news.
In seemingly every base of measurement for the month, Fox News’ numbers trailed relatively far behind the network’s stats from a year previous, and were also clearly lower than they were during the final months of Tucker Carlson’s hosting run. For instance, the channel’s average primetime viewership throughout May was 1.42 million pairs of eyeballs, which is a 37% decline from where that average was for May 2022 (via Deadline). While not a full split-in-half situation, losing more than a third of an audience based on any one factor is not a great sign, even if it’s an insightful one.
