Fox News’ Declining Ratings, Explained — Is It Really Just ‘Viewer Fatigue’?

Dan ClarendonMon, November 9, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC

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Hosts Jessica Tarlov, Jesse Watters, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld with Vice President of the United States JD Vance discusses new his book "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith" as he visits "The Five" at Fox News Channel Studios on June 16, 2026 in New York City. - Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Fox News contends the business is in “incredibly good shape.” Its viewership figures may suggest a different situation.

This October, Fox News’ audience levels were down 28 percent from October 2025, according to Nielsen statistics cited by the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, the total day audience among 25-to-54-year-old viewers dropped to 98,000, the cable news channel’s lowest monthly level for that metric in a quarter-century.

“The business is in incredibly good shape, and we’re very proud of the team,” Fox Corporation CEO and executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch told analysts in a recent quarterly earnings call, per the Times. “What we are seeing, though, is some viewer fatigue where our viewers have gone through some incredible news cycles the last few years.”

Murdoch argued that Fox News’ October 2026 viewership couldn’t compare to that of October 2025, when news stories like Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, Charlie Kirk’s assassination, DOGE’s government overhauls, and flooding disasters were still driving viewers to the channel. And the exec claimed that viewers weren’t leaving Fox News for rivals like MS NOW and CNN.

“Those viewers are not switching to another news channel; they are just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We have seen this playbook, and we know how to move through it.”

But as the Times noted, MS NOW and CNN actually gained viewers in October. And indeed, MS NOW’s leadership, like Mark Lazarus, CEO of parent company Versant, isn’t sympathizing with Fox News’ fatigue issue. “We’re not… currently seeing any fatigue with our audiences,” Lazarus told analysts in his own quarterly call in early November, THR reports. “Our audiences are active and vibrant and growing … I think it’s a testament to the quality of our product, to the voices that we have on there, and to the trust that our viewers have in our brands and in our talent.”

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The news gets worse for Fox News: October marked Fox’s lowest-rated month since December 2023, and the year-over-year decline suggested that “conservatives [were] tuning out ahead of the high-stakes elections,” Oliver Darcy wrote for the Status newsletter in October, per CNN. According to Variety, observers suspect conservatives were tuning out of Fox News faster than they were tuning out of CNN or MS NOW.

Murdoch and his colleagues at Fox News still have some bragging rights: Fox News still attracted more viewers in October than MS NOW and CNN combined, THR notes. But that ratings win doesn’t negate that Fox News’ October 2025-to-October 2026 decline was the largest pre-election dip the network has seen in the last six election cycles, according to THR.

It’s possible the ratings shift for the conservative Fox News reflects the political shift in the country, which experienced a “blue tsunami” with major Democratic wins during this month’s latest midterm elections. As the Times points out, such a correlation wouldn’t be unprecedented. During its MSNBC era, the liberal-leaning MS NOW lost viewers after Trump defeated Democratic presidential opponent Kamala Harris in 2024.

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Another issue for both Fox News and its rivals, the Times adds, is that the pay TV sector is suffering as customers drop their cable and satellite subscriptions for streaming — though, again, that trend doesn’t explain why Fox News lost viewers in October while MS NOW and CNN made gains.

If Lachlan had to face the music on Fox Corporation’s quarterly call with analysts, he might be relieved he didn’t have to do so after the midterm elections. On that Tuesday, Fox News averaged 4.3 million total viewers between 8 and 11 p.m., ranking behind broadcast TV channels NBC (6.7 million) and ABC (5.2 million), according to Nielsen figures cited by The Guardian. Fox News did defeat CNN (4.1 million) and MS NOW (3.7 million) that night, but CNN bested Fox News in the advertiser-coveted 25-to-54 demographic.

Laura Ingraham Facebook; Fox News

Viewer fatigue might also apply to Trump news, too. In his Reliable Sources newsletter, CNN’s Brian Stelter observed that Fox News was treading carefully in its coverage of Trump’s rallies. “This is coming from the top down,” a current Fox host told Stelter, adding that general thinking at the network was that “Trump doesn’t rate anymore.”

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In an MS NOW opinion, media columnist Brian Lowry wrote that “as Trump’s act appears to have grown tired, even in the eyes of millions who voted for him, [Fox News] may be entering a perilous new phase.”

Trump, for his part, has his own explanation for Fox News’ recent decline. “Fox News Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats!” he wrote in a Truth Social post this month. “All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it.”

Then Trump, whose approval rating is at an all-time low of -27, according to The Economist, offered his own spin on faltering performance metrics: “It’s them, not me — my numbers are better than they have ever been.”

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