Fox News viewer dip pre-US midterm election suggests Republican unease

• Fox News prime-time viewers fell 28% in four weeks before the US midterm elections, suggesting weaker Republican and MAGA enthusiasm, with Trump’s approval also down to 32%.
• MS NOW and CNN both gained viewers, while Fox still led cable news overall and said it remained number one across cable, digital, social and streaming.
• Experts said political conflict drives ratings, but cable TV is declining as people move to YouTube, and Nielsen’s 2026 measurement changes may affect audience numbers.

WASHINGTON – Fox News, the most-watched cable news network, saw a 28% prime-time viewer decline over the past four weeks leading up to the midterm elections, a sign the network’s traditionally conservative audience may be less enthused about the Nov 3 contest.

The Fox Corp network averaged 2 million evening viewers from Sept 28 to Oct 25, according to Nielsen data.

Versant Media Group’s MS NOW experienced a 15% increase to 1.16 million viewers, while Skydance Corp’s CNN averaged 644,000 viewers, a 16% increase over the same period.

Recent troubles for US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party may have cut into viewership.

The Democrats are currently favoured by both traditional polls and prediction market odds to win the House of Representatives and Senate, as voters grapple with issues around affordability, a controversial war in Iran and tariffs.

Trump’s approval rating dropped to a low for him of 32% last week, according to a poll from Reuters and Ipsos. 

That’s bad news for Fox, said Hang Media Inc chief executive officer Jon Klein, a former executive at CBS News and CNN.

“They live or die based on the president’s poll approval ratings and in general, the popularity of MAGA,” Klein said. 

Some support for Trump’s Make America Great Again movement may have shrunk during his second term.

Podcaster Joe Rogan, for example, has tamped down his once-vocal backing of the president.

These changes have likely contributed to Fox’s viewership decline, according to Reece Peck, an associate professor at the College of Staten Island and author of the book Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class.

While Fox still has a “diehard boomer demographic” committed to tuning in, the current election cycle “just does not inspire the urge to watch your favourite show,” Peck said. 

Trump has also signalled his displeasure with Fox News, saying in an Oct 25 social media post that the network was giving excessive air time to opponents of the Republicans.

The president joined the network for a telephone interview that morning.

Fox News commanded more than half of the cable news audience in total day viewership, beating combined viewership for CNN and MS NOW, the network said in a release on Oct 28. 

“Fox News has been the number one network in cable news for nearly a quarter century, through every administration since 2001,” the network said.

“As we’ve grown our business across platforms, we’ve expanded our dominance to digital, social and streaming, currently not only ranking as number one in cable, but also leading YouTube with nearly 4 billion video views this year, one billion more than the competition.”

In October 2025, Fox garnered viewership boosts from covering topics like the Gaza ceasefire and continued coverage on right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated the month before.

In 2026, Nielsen also introduced changes to its methods for measuring viewership.

The National Football League, which dominates TV viewership, voiced concerns in August that the changes would negatively impact audience numbers.

Overall, the cable industry continues to see declines in viewership as consumers turn to platforms like YouTube for content, according to Paul Hardart, director of the entertainment, media & technology programme at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

He said that for Fox specifically, the network did better when Joe Biden, a Democrat, was in office prior to Trump because political news networks thrive off of conflict.

“Fox News did really well when Biden was the president because it’s adversarial, and I think you may have the inverted effect happening with CNN and MS NOW,” he said.

The newsletter Status reported earlier on the Fox News ratings decline. BLOOMBERG