Regardless, that prime 8PM time slot is dead for them, along with the viewers and the ad revenues Carlson brought. They simply don't have anyone that can replace him.
I dunno. Before Tucker that 8PM had Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly. That timeslot seems to do pretty well regardless of who the host is.
It could also be considered the Kill Me timeslot because everyone who has had that slot has famously departed. Who hosted the first show after Tucker left? Brian Kilmeade, so that's kinda funny.
Regardless of his viewing numbers, his advertising renevue numbers have been of great concern for quite a while. Prior to 2020 his show was a cash cow sporting big name advertisers, including car companies, P&G, Disney, T-Mobile, big pharma, but he lost most of those in 2020 and 2021. So many brands have pulled out of the Carlson slot over the years, most of his remaining advertisers were closely associated with daytime or overnight advertisers, not Prime Time advertisers. In 2023 his advertisers have been MyPillow, Nutrisystem, Granite Stone, Relief Factor, PureTalkUSA, Coventry Direct, and Qunol. His largest two advertisers have been Fox News Channel itself, and the digital Fox News Nation.
So, good viewing numbers, but with deeply discounted revenue rates, mostly from companies you've never heard of unless you watched his show, is not a recipe for healthy bottom line sustainability. As Phil pointed out, Fox News' blip dip in stock price in meaningless. What will matter is the bottom line.