Tucker Carlson crushed the rest of cable news Monday night with his interview of Kyle Rittenhouse, the now-18-year-old man who shot three people (two of whom died) during a BLM rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges this past Friday.
“Tucker Carlson” tonight drew 4.942 million total viewers in the 8 p.m. hour Monday night, with 891,000 of them coming from the key demographic for news programming, adults 25-54. Those were the show’s best numbers since the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol, and thus, the largest of Joe Biden’s presidency.
By comparison, MSNBC had 1.168 million total viewers at 8 o’clock (150,000 from the demo) and CNN got 762,000 total viewers (180,000 from the demo). Carlson topped CNN by a whopping 549% overall and by 396% in the key demo. Another way to look at it is that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” more than doubled its main competition combined.
Across the entirety of primetime, which runs from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel (FNC) averaged 3.458 million total viewers (611,000 in the demo).
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” was up 52% overall last night and +67% in the demo when compared with its other Q4 2021 episodes. The hour was up 40% and 43%, respectively, from its November averages.
Year-to-date, the show was up 56% and 70%, respectively, vs. itself.
During the lengthy interview, Rittenhouse told Carlson, in part: “I’m not a racist person. I support the BLM movement. I support peacefully demonstrating. I believe there needs to be change. I believe there’s a lot of prosecutorial misconduct, not just in my case but in other cases. It’s just amazing to see how much a prosecutor can take advantage of someone.”
Rittenhouse also shared this message for President Biden: “Mr. President, if I would say one thing to you, I would urge you to go back and watch the trial and understand the facts before you make a statement.”
Shorter portions of Carlson’s interview with Rittenhouse ran over the weekend. More will stream as part of a “Tucker Carlson Originals” documentary on Fox Nation in December.
