Advertisers that steered clear of Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour when Tucker Carlson was host seem to be returning slowly, but surely.
According to Variety’s Brian Steinberg, advertisers such as Procter and Gamble have returned to 8 p.m., which rebranded as Fox News Tonight after Carlson exited the network late last month.
Fox News ad sales chief Jeff Collins told the news outlet that the rebranded hour is even seeing new advertisers and new demand. Collins says there are more than 40 new advertisers, in fact, including “some of the largest in the country, and really, across all major new categories.”
For years, advertisers wouldn’t commit dollars to the 8 p.m. hour when Carlson hosted it due to his highly controversial takes. As a result, the commercial pods during that hour would be filled with ads typically relegated for the overnight hours, such as direct-to-order ads like MyPillow, Balance of Nature, or in-house promos.
Marianne Gambelli, Fox Corp.’s president of sales, marketing, and brand partnerships, says that the network intends to have the full complement of national advertisers within that hour.
Of course, all of that hinges on what Fox News decides to do with that hour on a permanent basis.
Since Carlson’s stunning exit on the morning of Monday, April 24, the hour has been guest-hosted by Brian Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones, and is being led this week by former Trump press secretary and Outnumbered co-host Kayleigh McEnany.
Viewership for 8 p.m. has plummeted from the highs the hour garnered when Carlson (and even his predecessor Bill O’Reilly) served as host.
In fact, Fox News Tonight and MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes averaged the same amount of Adults 25-54 this past week (142,000), although Fox News Tonight averaged more total viewers than All In, 1.51 million vs. 1.3 million, respectively.
On Friday, Fox News Tonight was the No. 2 show behind All In in total viewers and came in third place even behind CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 in the key A25-54 demo.