Former Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson is more popular among Republicans than the network that fired him, according to a new poll out from Change Research. Carlson also beat out Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
Based on results from 404 likely Republican primary voters, Carlson scored a 59 percent net favorability rating. Musk trailed slightly behind him with 53 percent, and Fox News earned a negative 4 percent.
In total, pollsters for Change Research interviewed 1,208 registered voters via Facebook, Instagram, and telephone between April 28 and May 2. The poll was conducted with a 3 percent margin of error.
In polling reviewed by The Federalist, researchers found that the poll’s total group of respondents, which included Republicans, Democrats, and independents, gave former President Donald Trump and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the highest overall favorability ratings at 35 percent each. Among this total group, Carlson’s overall favorability rating was double that of Fox News.
Fox News fired Carlson in April, days after the network’s highest-rated host gave the keynote address at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary.
[READ: I Taped A Show With Tucker On Censorship Right Before He Was Fired]
Carlson announced shortly after his termination from television that he would bring his show to Twitter.
“There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” Carlson said in a three-minute video. “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter, where we are now.”
Fox News’ ratings plummeted after the network gave Carlson the boot.
“Cable news ratings show that in the two weeks since the host was fired, figures for Carlson’s former spot have dropped by around 50 percent,” Newsweek reported, “while the network’s audience among 25- to 54-year-olds had shrunk by two thirds.”
Musk, on the other hand, will be stepping down from Twitter as the platform’s chief executive but will remain the company’s executive chair. The billionaire entrepreneur named former NBC Universal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to Twitter’s top job.
