Minutes after the news came on Monday that Fox News Channel had fired Tucker Carlson, its primetime star, the stock price of the cable news channel’s parent firm, Fox Corporation, dropped by $1 billion.
Following the announcement that Carlson was leaving the company, shares of the firm—which also owns several other sports as well as entertainment television networks—dropped more than 5.4%, devaluing the business by $1 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company’s shares had one of the worst days among the S&P 500 on Monday. However, Fox shares were down a little more than 3% as the Monday closing bell sounded.
Carlson’s departure “is definitely going to be leaving a mark on Fox,” according to Matthew Tuttle, CIO and CEO at Tuttle Capital Management, in an interview with Bloomberg. With an average of 3.2 million viewers, 443,000 in the demo, and 299,000 in the 18-49 age group, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” scored as the highest-rated cable news program in the younger 25-54 demo for the first quarter of 2023.
“The Five” (3,058,000), “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2,670,000), “Hannity” (2,505,000), and “Special Report with Bret Baier” (2,200,000) are other Fox News Channel programs that are in the top five cable news programs.
Tuttle and other investors bought shares of Digital World Acquisition Corporation, the special-purpose acquisition firm fusing with Trump Media, and Rumble, the conservative television network backed by Peter Thiel, despite the fact that Carlson’s future is still up in the air.
According to Bloomberg, “both stocks reversed decreases, with Rumble stock rising as much as 3.9% and Digital World gaining 2.2%.”
The news comes just after Fox paid Dominion Voting Systems up to $800 million to settle a bombshell defamation lawsuit related to the 2020 election, narrowly averting a trial at which Carlson would have been required to testify.
Dan Bongino, a syndicated talk radio personality and former Secret Service agent, announced his departure from Fox News a week prior to Carlson’s departure, alleging a failure in contract negotiations.
Carlson hasn’t discussed his departure in the media.
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