Regardless of how you may feel about Tucker Carlson, it is undeniable that he was a massive asset to Fox News.

Granted, some of his views are controversial, but it was exactly his unconventional style and differing viewpoints on world affairs that drew so many people to his show, allowing Fox to trump its leftist competitors.

But now, Carlson is gone, and it appears Fox's domination of the cable news rankings has weakened considerably.

This was felt in the immediate aftermath of Carlson's departure, as the first 8 p.m. show without Carlson brought in only 2.6 million viewers, as opposed to the 3.2 million it brought in the week before. Fox host Sean Hannity, on at 9 p.m., also saw his viewership drop. (All times are Eastern Daylight.)

But now, the news seems to be getting even worse for Fox, and it appears the network is no longer the king of cable news.

According to Mediaite, "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC is now dominating prime-time cable news, bringing in 2.2 million views on Monday night, while Hannity is only bringing in 1.7 million viewers, and "Fox News Tonight," which replaced Carlson, is only bringing in about 1.6 million viewers.

(That still beats MSNBC's 8 p.m. offering, "All in With Chris Hayes," but it's not Carlson, by a long shot.)

The situation only further deteriorates when one looks at the statistics for the key age 25-54 demographic, which advertisers target. Maddow brought in 228,000 demo viewers, compared to only 158,000 from Hannity.

In addition, overall, Fox only averaged 1.6 million total viewers compared to MSNBC's 1.7 million

It is not all doom and gloom for Fox, however, as several of its programs still easily beat out the competition.

"The Five," at 5 p.m., is still the highest-rated cable news show with 2.7 million viewers, while "Jesse Watters Primetime" is in second at 2.4 million.

But these are still nowhere near the numbers that Carlson used to be able to pull in each and every night, and the numbers show that despite the popularity of these shows, Fox is in serious trouble.

It is certainly still competitive, and it will continue to remain a force to be reckoned with in cable news without Carlson, but it will not be the same.

There are probably some executives at Fox right now who are furious and kicking themselves over the decision to get rid of Carlson.

It is becoming increasingly clear that viewers were not watching Tucker Carlson because he was on Fox News, but rather, viewers were watching Fox News because the network had Tucker Carlson.

Of course, the Fox executives will be angry about this, but to anyone who has been paying attention to cable news, it is hardly surprising.

When you fire your biggest asset, you should not be surprised when your company takes a massive loss.

Fox bosses will have to find someone really special to replace Tucker if it hopes to bring back the viewership, or, perhaps even more embarrassingly for them, they might be forced to ask Tucker to come back

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.