Gretchen Carlson's show ratings weren't as 'disappointing' as Roger Ailes claims

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Ailes said Carlson's lawsuit was filed in retaliation for being fired by FNC for "disappointingly low ratings [that] were dragging down the afternoon lineup."

That's subjective and based on Ailes' and FNC's expectations. Any network, though, would be happy to see a new show improve on the previous ratings in its hour.

As for dragging down ratings for the afternoon lineup, "The Real Story" is the lowest-rated afternoon show on FNC, which speaks to Ailes' point of view.

At the same time, Carlson's suit alleges that the 2 p.m. hour is a challenging time slot. So if she's beating the other networks at the same time, then Carlson is making the best of a bad situation. For the quarter, "The Real Story" ranked No. 14 against all other cable news shows. Its closest 2 p.m. competition, "CNN Newsroom," is all the way down at No. 26.

Most networks would take the ratings increase over risking the chance on a new show that may not do as well.

So "The Real Story" is actually enjoying higher ratings year-over-year and generally winning the hour against the other news channels. That's pretty good news.

Verdict: True and false, but mostly false. Ailes may be disappointed with Carlson's numbers, but FNC should be quite pleased.

Gretchen Carlson presents the more convincing case here. She had strong ratings for the time slot that had actually improved on the year before.