In a bout of counter-programming to the first Republican primary debate on Fox News, Donald Trump sat down with Tucker Carlson for an interview on the former Fox News host’s X show on Wednesday night, opting to skip the debate altogether. As has been the case with many of Carlson’s X episodes, the interview was quickly followed by a press release boasting “blockbuster” viewership that “completely overshadowed” the debate. As it turns out, looking closer at the numbers for the Trump interview tells a very different story.
Prior to the debate, Carlson boasted that viewership of his interview with Trump — who is due to be booked on his fourth indictment in Georgia on Thursday — would dwarf Fox News ratings, and superficially that prediction came true.