Fox News Channel’s television audience fell sharply in October, even as its parent company reported strong financial results, raising questions about whether viewers are taking a temporary break from political coverage or shifting away from the network.
Fox’s total-day audience dropped 27% from a year earlier, while CNN and MS NOW gained viewers, according to Nielsen data. Among adults ages 25 to 54, Fox’s total-day audience fell 32% to an average of 98,000, its lowest monthly level in 25 years.
Fox averaged 1.1 million total-day viewers in October, compared with 588,000 for MS NOW and 402,000 for CNN. It captured 53% of the three networks’ combined audience and had 99 of the month’s 100 most-watched cable news telecasts. The network said it is on pace for its highest-rated midterm year in total-day viewers.
In a statement to TheWrap, Fox highlighted its ratings leadership and digital reach.
The ratings decline comes as cable news organizations face competition from streaming and digital platforms. Fox has weathered those changes better than most, but the October figures point to pressure even for the industry’s dominant network.
Fox Corp., the network’s parent company, reported that advertising revenue across its cable programming segment, which includes sports networks, rose 10% in fiscal 2026. Distribution revenue increased 5%, according to the company’s annual filing. Higher advertising prices and distribution fees helped offset pressure from lower ratings and declining cable subscriptions.
Those results predate October and do not show how the company performed financially during the month or explain the network’s audience decline.
One possible explanation is that some conservative viewers are losing interest in political news, rather than turning away from Fox, a former Nielsen executive said.
A Pew Research Center study found that 36% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they followed the news all or most of the time in 2025, down from 57% in 2016. The decline among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents was smaller.
The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that 45% of Americans sometimes or often avoid the news.
Neither study explains Fox’s October decline. Pew cautions that following the news less closely does not necessarily mean consuming less of it. Still, the findings suggest some viewers may be taking a break from political coverage.
In a statement to TheWrap, Fox highlighted its ratings leadership and digital reach.
The ratings decline comes as cable news organizations face competition from streaming and digital platforms. Fox has weathered those changes better than most, but the October figures point to pressure even for the industry’s dominant network.
Fox Corp., the network’s parent company, reported that advertising revenue across its cable programming segment, which includes sports networks, rose 10% in fiscal 2026. Distribution revenue increased 5%, according to the company’s annual filing. Higher advertising prices and distribution fees helped offset pressure from lower ratings and declining cable subscriptions.
Those results predate October and do not show how the company performed financially during the month or explain the network’s audience decline.
One possible explanation is that some conservative viewers are losing interest in political news, rather than turning away from Fox, a former Nielsen executive said.
A Pew Research Center study found that 36% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they followed the news all or most of the time in 2025, down from 57% in 2016. The decline among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents was smaller.
The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that 45% of Americans sometimes or often avoid the news.
Neither study explains Fox’s October decline. Pew cautions that following the news less closely does not necessarily mean consuming less of it. Still, the findings suggest some viewers may be taking a break from political coverage.