As President Trump tries to convince voters to retain Republican majorities in the House and Senate ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, some Fox News viewers are taking pause.
This, according to Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, is behind the conservative-leaning cable news channel’s sharp decline in viewership in October. Fox News, which often attracts more prime-time viewers than some broadcast networks, saw its October viewership fall 28% from last year, according to Nielsen. Its total daily audience among viewers aged 25 to 54 fell to 98,000, the lowest monthly level in 25 years.
“The business is doing incredibly well and we’re very proud of the team,” Murdoch told analysts Monday during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call. “What we’re seeing, though, is some viewer fatigue, as our viewers have been through incredible news cycles over the last few years.”
Murdoch noted that Fox News is suffering year over year compared to a 2025 news cycle that included President Trump’s inauguration and the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, which sent the channel’s ratings soaring last fall.
Murdoch also said that Fox News viewers are not turning to MS NOW or CNN and are instead watching a little less television. But both networks gained viewers in October, suggesting that fatigue is not being felt across cable news.
Even with the ratings decline, Fox News says it’s on track to have its highest-rated midterm year in terms of daily viewers. The network’s total daily average was 1.1 million viewers in October, up from 1.5 million a year earlier.
Politically attentive viewers lose interest when their side is in trouble, which has happened on the other end of the political spectrum. MS NOW, formerly known as MSNBC, saw its ratings drop sharply in the months following Trump’s victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election that returned him to the White House.
Declining Fox News audiences had no impact on the parent company’s profits, which were strong in the fiscal first quarter thanks to record viewership levels for the FIFA World Cup and strong sales of political ads on its television channels. Fox News’ viewership also declined this quarter, and the company reported a decline in digital news advertising revenue.
Fox News has just over 50% of the combined audience of the three major cable news channels and remains the dominant leader over CNN and MS NOW, both of which gained viewers last month. Fox News has also expanded its advertiser base in recent years and benefits from negotiated revenue increases from the cable and satellite providers that carry the channel.
Murdoch said Fox News saw a similar audience decline during the 2006 midterm campaign, when President George W. Bush was in his second term. (Republican viewers were also put off by the Bush administration’s shoddy handling of Hurricane Katrina.)
Murdoch did not cite the most recent example from late 2020, when the public tuned out of Fox News amid dissatisfaction with the 2020 election results and the network’s coverage, including its Arizona call for Joe Biden. Trump and his most ardent supporters insisted that he had won and that the election was rife with voter fraud. (While Fox News reporters consistently reported that Biden won the election, the network repeatedly aired Trump’s false claims of fraud, leading to a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems that was settled for $787 million in 2023.)
Fox News’ ratings rebounded in early 2021. The network also rebounded from a ratings decline that followed the ouster of Tucker Carlson in April 2023, when he was its most-watched prime-time personality.
In the current election cycle, Fox News opinion hosts continue to provide strong support for Trump. But Trump has complained that the channel doesn’t cover his rallies enough.
The competitiveness of the midterm elections has the network spending more time on poll numbers that indicate Democrats will have a strong night Tuesday, largely because of voter dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy and the war with Iran.
Trump has complained publicly about Fox News giving attention to Democratic candidates, even though the network has always invited party members to appear on its programs. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as leaders of the left-wing organization, have been willing to engage with their anchors, even though Fox News opinion hosts portray them as dangerous radicals.
But Fox News is also likely feeling the impact of fewer households subscribing to pay TV as consumers continue to abandon cable and satellite services in favor of streaming, although CNN and MS NOW have gained viewers despite the same trend.
Fox has attempted to recapture some of these cord-cutters through its direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service, Fox One. Murdoch touted Fox One’s growth and said it was fulfilling its mission to recruit consumers who no longer have pay TV, but the company did not reveal subscription numbers.
Gn headline
