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Fox News anchor Sean Hannity’s primetime show is feeling the heat since popular host Tucker Carlson was ousted from the network.
Hannity’s show, which got up to 1.9 million last week, fell to 1.3 million on Friday night. Hannity’s total viewers dropped by roughly 600,000 on Friday to 1.3 million.
“Fox News ratings juggernaut The Five led cable news on Friday and was the only show to score more than 2 million total viewers. The Five won the day with 2.42 million total viewers, while Bret Baier came in second with 1.6 million, and Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show landed third with 1.56 million total viewers. The Five also led in the key 25-54 age demographic, while Baier and Gutfeld swapped second and third place,” Mediaite reported.
“Notably, Newsmax scored another rare win over CNN at 10 p.m. as Greg Kelly just topped Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace? — with 283,000 viewers compared to 224,000. Wallace did still top Kelly in the demo,” the outlet added.
Earlier this month, Hannity said he was “stunned” after learning that the network had parted ways with Carlson.
Speaking on his radio show “The Sean Hannity Show,” Hannity — whose 9 PM ET program on Fox News begins immediately after Carlson’s now-former time slot — admitted that he had no idea that Carlson would be leaving.
“It’s very hard,” Hannity said. “My phone has been blowing up. The hard part for me is I don’t have a clue … I have no idea. Was it Tucker’s decision? Was it Fox’s? Was it a mutual agreement that they had? I don’t know. I guess people think that because I’ve been there the longest I’d have some knowledge or understanding of what’s going on, but… I just don’t.”
Outside of Carlson and Hannity, Fox News denied reports that host Laura Ingraham has been fired from the network.
Fox News released a statement slamming “left-wing activists” who claimed on Twitter that the network planned to fire Ingraham, who has been a host on Fox for many years.
“Reports based on various tweets by left-wing activists are wildly inaccurate – Laura Ingraham, the top-rated woman in cable news, is now and will continue to be a prominent host and integral part of the Fox News lineup,” Fox News said in a statement, via Mediaite.
The rumors about Ingraham began after news aggregator Matt Drudge shared a scoop detailing how Fox News will make a big shake-up following Carlson’s departure from the network.
According to Drudge, the network will move longtime host Sean Hannity to take over the 8 p.m. time slot.
“WORLD EXCLUSIVE: FOXNEWS SETS NEW SCHEDULE” read the headline from Drudge, who noted Hannity’s new time slot as well as reports that both Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld would be heading to prime time.
“FOXNEWS is preparing to announce an ambitious new schedule, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, a schedule where ever hour of primetime will change!” Drudge reported. “TOP SOURCE TELLS DRUDGE: ‘IT’S OUR BOLDEST AND MOST FEARLESS LINE-UP EVER’…”
A spokesperson for Fox News issues a statement to Mediaite regarding Drudge’s report by saying: “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration.”
SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly made headlines last week when she spoke about the rumored primetime host shuffle on Fox News and said she did not think Hannity was the answer to taking over Carlson’s time slot.
“They need to do something. I will submit it for the record, this isn’t it. This is not it. They need a voice like Tucker’s and even that’s probably not going to do it because the audience is very angry and they miss Tucker. But Hannity is not the answer at 8 pm… He hasn’t been the answer at 9 pm lately since Tucker left. We’ve been following the ratings. They’re hemorrhaging at 8 pm and 9 pm, where currently Sean is in right now,” Kelly said.
“The four weeks prior to Tucker’s departure, he was averaging 3.3 million overall. Now it’s less than half. They’re averaging 1.5 million, so less than half of what Tucker got. He was averaging 429,000 in the demo… They’re now pulling in 152,000 in that time slot and Hannity is not much better. He’s at 158,000 in the demo – down about half from 308,000. And his overall is down significantly too, all double-digit falls. So the audience will have the last say on whether these are the solutions, but right now they’re still very, very angry at Fox News. And Fox hasn’t done much to assuage their concerns or make them feel better about firing their top star who remains under contract but silenced,” she added.
