Tucker Carlson's FOX interview with Kyle Rittenhouse blew away CNN, MSNBC in ratings war
On Monday, November 22, Tucker Carlson’s Fox News interview with Kyle Rittenhouse went on air and reportedly attracted more than five million viewers, which was more than double the number of viewers CNN and MSNBC attracted that day. Carlson's interview went on air from 8 pm and 8 pm Eastern time and in that time span MSNBC’s ‘All In With Chris Hayes’ and CNN’s ‘Anderson Cooper 360°’ also came on air, but the first one was viewed by 1.2 million people while only 792,000 people took interest in the second one.
Besides CNN and MSNBC, Carlson also beat his own channel’s shows like ‘The Five’ and ‘Hannity’ with his interview of Rittenhouse, post his trial. ‘The Five’ comes at 5 pm and on Monday, November 22, it was viewed by 3.72 million while ‘Hannity’ that comes just after Carlson’s show attracted 3.28 million viewers.
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Rittenhouse was freed of all charges on November 19 after being accused of killing two men and injuring another on August 25, 2020, and Fox News was the first network to interview him post-trial. The charges he was facing were — first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, and use of a dangerous weapon.
On the show, the teenager claimed to be a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said, “I'm not a racist person. I support the BLM movement, I support peacefully demonstrating,” before adding, “I feel like my life has been extremely defamed. I have really good lawyers who are taking care of that right now.” Also, Rittenhouse appreciated the jury’s verdict and added: “I thought they came to the correct verdict because it wasn't Kyle Rittenhouse on trial in Wisconsin — it was the right to self-defense on trial. And if I was convicted... no one would ever be privileged to defend their life against attackers.”
But many showed their disappointment over the verdict. Former US Attorney Joyce Vance pointed out that “the prosecution's real problems began when one of their key witnesses, the victim who survived, took the witness stand, and he essentially on cross-examination conceded self-defense. He talked about the fact that there was a gun in his hand. The prosecution tried to argue their way out of that situation, but I think the die was cast in a significant way at that point.” Vance made an appearance on MSNBC.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid added: “Gun laws helped to enhance the design to allow this verdict to happen today. This country was built on the idea that White men had a particular kind of freedom and a particular kind of citizenship that only they have that gives, you know, from the slave catchers on, the right to inflict violence in the name of protecting property. That's like the foundational creation of the United States. What we need to worry about is we have nothing in place legally. We have nothing in place culturally or socially to stop the next group of White nationalists, Proud Boys MAGA people, whoever they want to take from this burden what they want, and to use it as permission to attack Black Lives Matter."