Fox News has suffered significant financial losses after firing Tucker Carlson, one of its most popular hosts, on April 24.
Bloomberg cited recent data from the analytics firm Nielsen, saying that excluding sports programs, Tucker Carlson Tonight was the highest-rated program in prime time on cable television in the US. Accordingly, more than 3.7 million people watched the program.
Following the decision to fire Mr. Carlson by Fox News, the network’s Class A shares at one point in the trading session on April 24 lost 5.4% of their value, before closing the session down 2.9%. This decrease was equivalent to a loss of more than $500 million in stock value.
Carlson’s departure from Fox News came after the news network agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems.
“Fox News now has to rebuild and it will take time for its stock to recover,” said Brandon Nispel, an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
“With the ad offering scheduled for May, we don’t know what Fox will tell businesses or how it will fill the void in its programming,” he added.
While Tucker Carlson Tonight is one of the most-watched shows on Fox News, Nispel predicted that most of those viewers will return to the network once a replacement host is announced.
Investors also paid attention to Carlson’s potential destinations on April 24. Shares of Rumble, billionaire Peter Thiel’s right-wing online video platform, rose 6%. Additionally, shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is merging with Trump Media, rose 2.9%.
“Carlson’s departure will certainly have consequences for Fox,” said Matthew Tuttle, chief executive and chief investment officer of Tuttle Capital Management.
