As President Trump tries to convince voters to maintain the Republican majority in the House and Senate ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, some Fox News viewers are taking a break.
That’s what Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and chief executive of Fox Corporation, believes is behind the steep October ratings drop for the conservative-leaning cable news channel. Fox News, which often draws more viewers in prime time than some broadcast networks, saw its October audience levels drop 28% compared to a year ago, according to Nielsen. Its total day audience among viewers ages 25 to 54 fell to 98,000, the lowest monthly level in 25 years.
“The business is in incredibly good shape and we’re very proud of the team,” Murdoch told analysts Monday on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “What we are seeing, though, is some viewer fatigue where our viewers have gone through some incredible news cycles the last few years.”
Murdoch noted that Fox News suffers in a year-to-year comparison with a 2025 news cycle that included President Trump’s inauguration, and the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, which spiked the network’s ratings last fall.
Murdoch also said Fox News viewers are not switching to MS NOW or CNN and are instead watching slightly less television. But both of those networks gained viewers in October, which suggests the fatigue is not being felt across all of cable news.
Even with the ratings decline, Fox News says it is on pace for its highest-rated midterm year in total day viewers. The network’s total day average was 1.1 million viewers in October, down from 1.5 million a year earlier.
Politically minded viewers tuning out when their side is struggling has happened at the other end of the political spectrum. Progressive-leaning 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.
The Fox News ratings slide had no impact on the parent company’s earnings, which were strong in its fiscal first quarter thanks to the record-setting audience levels for the FIFA World Cup and robust political ad sales on its TV stations. Fox News’ audience also declined during that quarter, and the company reported lower digital news advertising revenue.
Fox News has slightly more than a 50% share of the combined audience for 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 also has broadened its base of advertisers in recent years and benefits from negotiated increases in revenue from cable and satellite providers that carry the channel.
Murdoch said Fox News saw a similar ratings dip during the 2006 midterm campaign when then-President George W. Bush was in his second term. (Republican viewers also were turned off by the Bush administration’s botched handling of Hurricane Katrina.)
Murdoch did not cite the more recent example of late 2020, when the audience tuned out of Fox News while unhappy over the results of the 2020 election and the network’s coverage of them, including its call of Arizona for Joe Biden. Trump and his most ardent supporters insisted he won and that the election was rife with voter fraud. (While Fox News journalists were consistent in reporting 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 bounced back from a ratings dip that followed the ousting 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 deliver strong support for Trump. But Trump has complained that the network is not giving enough coverage to his rallies.
The competitiveness of the midterm elections has the network devoting more time to the poll numbers that indicate the Democrats will have a strong night on Tuesday, largely because of voter unhappiness over 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 always has welcomed the party’s members to appear on its programs. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, along with the left wing organization’s leaders, have been willing to engage with its anchors even as Fox News opinion hosts paint them as dangerous radicals.
But Fox News also is likely feeling the impact of the dwindling number of homes with subscriptions to pay TV, as consumers continue to abandon cable and satellite services for streaming, although CNN and MS NOW gained viewers despite the same trend.
Fox has tried to recoup some of those cord-cutters through its direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service Fox One. Murdoch touted the growth of Fox One and said it is fulfilling its mission of signing on consumers who no longer have pay TV, but the company has not revealed subscription numbers.
