Fox News has picked a strong conservative to fill Tucker Carlson’s old time slot this week, but the reaction suggests that the damage has already been done.
The network has been hemorrhaging viewers ever since parting ways with Carlson two weeks ago, to the point where MSNBC is now outpacing Fox in the primetime spot. Fox is now more desperate than ever to bring a conservative audience back to its network.
In an attempt at doing damage control, Fox announced a new face to temporarily fill Carlson’s time slot. That person is Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary under Donald Trump.
On Monday, McEnany took to Twitter to announce that she would be hosting “Fox News Tonight” all week.
Join me all this week at 8pm ET on @FoxNews as I host Fox News Tonight! pic.twitter.com/WUS49bpcGJ
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) May 8, 2023
However, if Fox thought that bringing on Trump’s former press secretary to temporarily replace Carlson would bring conservative viewers back to the network, then they were sorely mistaken.
The replies to McEnany’s tweet showed that people had no interest in watching her show on Fox after what the network did to Carlson.
No. We leave with Tucker.
— ????? ✞?? (@Isaiah545251391) May 8, 2023
No can do
— AmericaAsFounded? (@SinceWollman86) May 8, 2023
Hard no! Big mistake Kayleigh
— JeepGirlKristine (@JeepGrlKristine) May 8, 2023
Other tweets seemed to suggest that people had no problem with McEnany herself, but rather that they could not be bothered to give Fox an audience.
Love you!
Not watching FOX— Snow65snow (@Snow65Snow) May 8, 2023
Thanks for all you have done and keep it up, but I will not be watching you on Fox.
— David (@DWC904) May 8, 2023
And that’s the point. McEnany is a solid conservative and would make a great political commentator, but that’s not what most people are concerned about. People are concerned with the fact that Fox chose to get rid of someone who was super popular with audiences, seemingly in order to appease the woke left.
Not to mention, Carlson’s presence is what brought audiences to Fox. Without him, anything that made Fox unique and special has vanished.
True, there are still commentators on the network such as Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters who are popular with viewers, but neither of them can bring in the numbers that Carlson was able to.
In short, Fox’s plummeting viewership has less to do with the people employed by the network, and more to do with the actions of executives when it comes to popular commentators. It seems as if no commentator can save Fox’s reputation.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
