Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch touts soaring Fox News ratings, success of 'Gutfeld!'

Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch touted Fox News' soaring ratings during a third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, proclaiming the network's lead over its rivals, and highlighting the success of the new hit show "Gutfeld!" 

Murdoch spoke during the call about the news cycle that followed the 2020 presidential election and the fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot providing a brief boost to competitors' ratings.

"At that time, what we did not anticipate was the short but heightened news cycle that immediately followed the election and that clearly benefited our competition. Since the second impeachment trial, Fox News regained its leadership position and has maintained that leading spot ever since, averaging a 40 percent share of total day in primetime cable news audiences," he said.

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Murdoch went on to praise the success of the new show "Gutfeld!," which premiered on April 5, hosted by Greg Gutfeld. He said the show is drawing an audience larger than NBC's "The Tonight Show," and "roughly the same size as Jimmy Kimmel Live." 

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He went on to note that Fox Nation saw a 40 percent increase in subscriber growth since February. He added that the network would be investing in new Fox Nation programming in the future, building on the popular additions of "Tucker Carlson Today" and "Tucker Carlson Originals" to the streaming platform. 

Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable-news channel for the 11th straight week from April 26 through May 2, with an average of 2.3 million primetime viewers. 

"Tucker Carlson Tonight" was the most-watched program, averaging 2.9 million viewers for the week. 

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The network also averaged 1.2 million total day viewers, with liberal rivals CNN and MSNBC failing to even hit one million.