Cable viewers like Tucker Carlson. They like Kanye West even more, apparently.
According to Mediaite, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was seen by 3.59 million viewers Thursday, when he featured an interview with West.
That was enough to top the 3.37 million brought in by “The Five,” which Mediaite said “regularly” garners the highest viewership in cable news. Carlson also came out on top in the 25-54 demographic — you know, the one media reporters insist on describing as “coveted.”
Overall, it looked like a pretty good night for Fox News in general, with Jesse Watters’ show also pulling in more than 3 million total viewers, according to the outlet.
You can see the entire cable news ratings numbers at Mediaite’s site. It amuses me every time I look at it to note that NewsNation doesn’t even bother trying to compete with “Outnumbered” or Martha MacCallum’s “The Story” on Fox; the self-described “trusted source for breaking news, unbiased U.S. news & video delivered from the heartland of America delivered 24/7” runs five episodes of “Blue Bloods” from noon to 5 p.m. Eastern every weekday.
Then on Saturdays, it runs several hours of infomercials in the morning, followed by 10 episodes of “Blue Bloods” every week, and on Sundays it’s more infomercials and 22 episodes of “Last Man Standing.”
Don’t get me wrong; Tom Selleck and Tim Allen are two of my favorites, but if 46 hours of police drama and situation comedy every week reasonably constitutes any portion of the “24/7” news coverage NewsNation claims to provide, I’ll eat my hat.
And then I’ll eat Tom Selleck and Tim Allen’s hats. But I digress.
Overall, Fox News picked up about 1.9 million viewers on average during the day Thursday, almost 25 percent more than CNN and MSNBC combined.
Did you watch Tucker’s interview with Kanye West?
The other outlets fared a little better in that key 25-42 demographic, combining to garner nearly 90 percent of what Fox News managed to bring in on its own. (I know that’s still pretty pathetic, but I’m trying not to rub it in too much.)
The ratios weren’t exactly the same in prime time, but they were close enough that I won’t bore you with more percentages.
It’s fairly easy to see why “Tucker Carlson Tonight” did so well Thursday. There were plenty of revelations — like the fact that Kim Kardashian was never more than a cellphone call away from former first lady Hillary Clinton even during their marriage, and West never even knew it.
And West has never shied away from controversy.
“They said stuff like, ‘people get killed for wearing a [MAGA] hat like that,’ they threatened my life,” West told Carlson. “They basically said I would be killed for wearing the hat. I had someone call me last night and said, ‘Anybody wearing a White Lives Matter shirt is going to be green lit.’ And that means, beat them up if they wear it.
“I’m like, green light me then,” was West’s response to those comments. “God builds warriors in a different way.”
Then, after explaining why he does not care about the opinions of others, and blasting the “godless agenda” of the mainstream media, West told Carlson, “I perform for an audience of one, and that’s God.”
That’s actual news — a solid interview on important topics in society and entertainment with an actual cultural icon. That’s probably why Carlson beat out not only shows on other networks in his time slot, but even other Fox News shows that evening.
And you know what? I take back what I said about “Blue Bloods” and “Last Man Standing” not belonging in NewsNation’s lineup. Now that I think of it, there’s probably more truth in those two shows than in your average hour of whatever they’re running on MSNBC.
