Fewer Republicans may be fans of Megyn Kelly since her feud with Donald Trump erupted after last month's debate. But ratings show TV viewers in the prized 25-54 demo are turning on the Fox News star in big numbers.
Fox News' "The Kelly File" was the highest-rated cable new show in the month of August, outpacing even ratings king Bill O'Reilly, according to
the Hollywood Reporter.
Neilsen ratings show an average of 566,000 adults 25-54 watched "The Kelly File" in August, edging out O'Reilly's 541,000 viewers in the key demographic. Kelly's rating win is only her third since her move to the 9 p.m. slot on Fox and comes despite a week off.
Kelly is riding the ratings momentum that began with the Aug. 6 GOP debate, which captured 24 million viewers, making it the
highest-rated non-sports cable telecast of all time. The debate, moderated by Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, won 7.9 million viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most desired by advertisers in news programming.
The debate also ignited a raging feud between Trump and Fox News after the GOP frontrunner scorched Kelly and the network's debate questioning as
"pretty unprofessional."
Trump re-ignited the war of words in a Twitter rant after Kelly returned from her vacation on Aug, 24.
Despite the ratings win, Kelly seems to have
lost support among Republicans. According to Public Policy Polling, Kelly's favorable/unfavorable rating was 44/9 when it last polled Republicans about her in December 2013. Her favorability has since dropped two points to 42 percent, but her unfavorability has more than doubled to 20 percent.
"Meanwhile, Trump's popularity with GOP voters has just continued to grow," the poll's website said. "Last month before the debate his favorability with them was 48/39, now it's improved to 56/30."
Newsmax writers Greg Richter and Melissa Clyne contributed to this report.
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