Fox News Channel has lost hundreds of thousands of viewers in the all-important 8 p.m. Eastern time slot as a direct result of the network's decision to terminate Tucker Carlson's contract.

Following Mr. Carlson's unexpected resignation on Monday, an estimated 2,597,000 people tuned in to watch the replacement show "Fox News Tonight," which was presented by Brian Kilmeade as the first of several rotating presenters.

The data for this estimate comes from the television news website TVNewser, as reported by The Washington Times.

More on the Data

Even though it handily bested Tucker Carlson Tonight's competition on CNN and MSNBC at the same time, the numbers represent a ratings decline of more than 20% from the previous episode of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Carlson's program has drawn an average of 3.3 million people in the eight weeks leading up to Monday.

A drop of 21.3% in audience size was indicated by the decrease of 700,000 viewers from the previous night's performance.

In the 5 p.m. EDT time slot on Monday, the discussion show "The Five" on Fox News Channel had around 3,220,000 viewers, which was the biggest number of viewers for any cable news program.

Fox News and Carlson Part Ways

The network and Carlson reportedly reached a settlement to end his employment there, according to their press release.

The network said they were grateful to him for his efforts as a host for the network, in addition to the previous work he did there as a contributor.

On Friday, April 21st, Carlson presented his final show and the network stated that beginning on the following Monday, an interim version of Fox News Tonight will run live at 8 PM/ET.

The show will be hosted by various FOX News personalities in rotation until a permanent replacement can be found.

Carlson Speaks Out

"One of the first things you realize, when you step outside the noise for a few days, is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country and decent people who really care about what's true," Carlson said, breaking his silence.

The former Fox host added that "the other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are."

"They're completely irrelevant," he continued. "They mean nothing. In five years we won't even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who's participated.”