Fox News host Laura Ingraham has lost advertisers, but she’s gained ratings: Last week she earned her best ever.
Ingraham went on vacation on March 3o after advertisers began bailing on her show because she mocked Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg for “whining” about not getting into colleges. But in her return to the airwaves last week, she was up 25 percent in total viewers and 36 percent in the key 25-54 demo, compared to her averages for the first three months of the year.
She averaged 3,099,000 total viewers and 685,000 in the 25-54 demo. The numbers included a bump in viewership for Friday’s coverage of the airstrikes on Syria, which also improved ratings for her competition at MSNBC and CNN. Ingraham beat both networks in total viewers and the demo last week.
The numbers suggest that rather than costing Ingraham viewers, the dispute over Hogg has drawn eyes to her show, which debuted in October.
Ingraham has lost 27 advertisers since her tweet about Hogg, for which she has apologized. Fox News has said it will stand by her.
Last week, Ace Hardware reversed its decision to stop advertising on her show, exactly one week after it announced it would part ways with the Fox News host.
Hogg spearheaded calls for an advertiser boycott after Ingraham mocked him in a March 28 tweet, and the liberal activist group Media Matters for America quickly picked up the effort. Since the campaign began, most of her biggest sponsors, including Mitsubishi, Blue Apron, SlimFast and IBM have exited, and ad time on “The Ingraham Angle” has been cut roughly in half.