Deprived of its biggest star, Fox News’ ratings suffered a palpable hit on Monday night, with a sizably smaller audience tuning in to watch the network fill its 8 p.m. slot previously occupied by Tucker Carlson. Fox News Tonight pulled in just under 2.6 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a 21 percent dip from Tucker Carlson Tonight’s recent average viewership of 3.3 million. The replacement show—hosted by Brian Kilmeade, one of several in Fox’s stable expected to be tapped to rotate through—also garnered a 0.24 rating, a full 37 percent lower than Carlson’s average of 0.38 over the last two months. Still, those figures were enough to allow the network to cruise to first place on Monday night, delivering an overall viewership average of just over 2.35 million. Fox was dinged slightly in the 9 p.m. slot, with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow beating out Sean Hannity at 2.73 million to 2.53 million. Still, Hannity’s numbers didn’t suffer much even without Carlson as a lead-in, reflecting a figure close to its recent average of 2.59 million.
