Tucker Carlson’s Megyn Kelly Interview Tops Cable News Ratings, Draws 4.1 Million Viewers

On Wednesday night, former Fox News star Megyn Kelly made her first appearance on Fox airwaves since leaving the network in early 2017 for NBC, sitting down with Tucker Carlson to speak at length on the current turmoil that NBC is facing following the allegations laid out in Ronan Farrow’s new book Catch and Kill.

It would appear there was quite a bit of interest in her return to television, as Carlson’s program saw a major uptick in viewers and led cable news across the board.

According to Nielsen, Tucker Carlson Tonight drew a total of 4.068 million viewers and 689,000 in the key 25-54 advertising demographic, easily topping cable news in both categories.

Tucker’s big numbers helped give Fox News a comfortable win in the 8-11 PM primetime hours. The conservative-leaning network averaged 3.616 million viewers overall and 618,000 in the key demo. MSNBC, meanwhile, pulled in decent numbers but was well-behind in second-place, drawing 2.861 million total viewers and 458,000 in the demographic. CNN nabbed 392,000 demo viewers and a total audience of 1.460 million.

Fox News’ Hannity finished second in both total viewers (3.653 million) and the key demo (632,000). MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, which airs opposite Hannity at 9 PM, placed third in the demo (574,000) and overall viewership (3.444 million).

The top-rated show on CNN was Cuomo Prime Time and Anderson Cooper 360, which both drew 1.493 million viewers overall. The 10 PM broadcast of CNN Tonight led in the demo with 414,000.