What is behind Fox News’ ratings drop?

Fox News lost 27% of its total day viewers in October compared with a year earlier, ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, The Wrap reports, citing Nielsen data. Among adults 25–54, the network’s total day audience fell 32% to an average of 98,000 viewers, its lowest monthly level in 25 years.

Fox averaged 1.1 million total day viewers, compared with 588,000 for MS NOW and 402,000 for CNN. On Monday’s earnings call, Lachlan Murdoch attributed the decline to viewer fatigue. “Those viewers are not switching to another news channel, they are just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall,” Murdoch said.

Ad revenue across Fox Corp.’s cable programming segment, which includes sports networks, rose 10% in fiscal 2026, while distribution revenue increased 5%, according to its annual filing. It noted those results predate October. Nielsen also refined its methodology in August, so comparisons between October 2025 and 2026 are not perfectly like-for-like, and the effect on Fox’s decline remains unclear, TheWrap said.