No one is above accountability, we at The Dispatch believe, and that includes us.

In that spirit, I hold myself accountable. I was wrong.

On the day Fox News parted ways with Tucker Carlson, I doubted that the network would suffer much, if at all, in the 8 p.m. hour. “For all the hype about Carlson’s ratings, the truth is that any dogmatic right-wing figure airing at 8 p.m. on Fox News will attract an enormous audience,” I wrote. “It’s conceivable that Carlson’s replacement will even improve on his numbers by luring back a few traditionally conservative viewers who may have been put off by Tucker’s New Right approach. Slide Ben Shapiro into that hour and Fox won’t miss a beat.”

That is … not what the ratings at 8 p.m. have shown in the two weeks since his departure.