Fox News ratings drop is due to ‘viewer fatigue,’ Murdoch says on eve of midterms

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A highly contentious midterm election is contributing to higher ratings for many news brands. But not at the Fox News Channel.

Fox News remains the most-watched cable channel overall, but its ratings have fallen sharply in recent weeks, prompting speculation that Fox’s Republican-heavy audience is feeling deflated by the midterms.

Fox’s own polls have shown Democrats with numerous advantages heading into election night. The network’s base may just be tuning out the news.

The year-over-year ratings decline is steep enough that Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch had to address it when the company released quarterly earnings on Monday morning.

Murdoch curiously chalked it up to “viewer fatigue” — though if that’s the diagnosis, it’s unique to Fox, since other news networks are seeing viewership growth.

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What Fox News isn't showing, and what it means for the midterms

On a conference call with investors and analysts, Murdoch said Fox News as a business “is in incredibly good shape” despite the recent dip.

He argued that huge news events in 2025 created a tough “comp,” or comparison, for Fox News this year. He cited President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Charlie Kirk’s assassination and interest in DOGE, among other topics.

“It was a tremendous news cycle this time last year, which we’re comping against,” he said. “But having said that, we are seeing some viewer fatigue, which we’ve seen before.”

Murdoch added: “This cycle is analogous, not entirely, but somewhat analogous to the 2006 midterms, when you have a second-term president going into their midterms halfway after the second term, and you just see this viewer fatigue.”

In 2006, it was President George W. Bush, who had an approval rating almost as low as Trump has now.

Murdoch said Fox fans “are not going to any other news channel. They’re not switching to MS NOW or to CNN. They’re just, you know, fatigued and watching… slightly less television overall.”

Murdoch’s comments about tough comparisons to 2025 are undermined by October ratings, which came out last week. October 2025 was not an exceptionally busy news month. Yet Fox News viewership was down 27 percent year over year while CNN viewership was up 3 percent and MS NOW viewership was up 17 percent.

Fox’s contraction and MS NOW’s growth were even more pronounced among 25- to 54-year-old viewers. Overall, Fox scored its lowest audience level in the 25-54 demographic since August 2001.

Murdoch told investors that “we’ve seen this playbook” and “know how to move through it.”

Why Trump’s favorite CNN video of Harry Enten is ‘not the full story’

Fox is used to seeing viewer mood swings show up in the ratings. In 2020, when Trump allies attacked Fox for accurately reporting that he had lost to Joe Biden, Fox’s ratings dropped precipitously. The ratings pressure was on the minds of some Fox hosts and producers who subsequently platformed Trump’s election lies, leading to multiple defamation lawsuits.

Emails and texts obtained through Dominion’s defamation lawsuit showed that Fox executives saw the ratings drop as a “brand crisis,” one that necessitated an “All American cookout of hot dogs and hamburgers to get us through.”

Over time, the Fox base did tune back in, and Trump reestablished his control over the GOP.

This time might be more complicated because the post-midterm period is the effective start of the 2028 presidential primary — one that won’t feature Trump as a candidate.

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充满争议的中期选举推高了许多新闻频道的收视率，但福克斯新闻频道却并非如此。

福克斯新闻仍然是收视率最高的有线电视频道，但其收视率在最近几周急剧下降，引发了人们的猜测，认为福克斯新闻以共和党人为主的观众群体可能因中期选举而感到沮丧。

福克斯电视台自己的民调显示，民主党在选举之夜拥有诸多优势。该电视台的观众可能只是对新闻不感兴趣。

福克斯公司首席执行官拉克兰·默多克在周一早上公司发布季度收益报告时不得不对此做出回应，因为收视率同比下降的幅度非常大。

默多克奇怪地将其归因于“观众疲劳”——不过，如果这是诊断结果，那也是福克斯新闻独有的，因为其他新闻网络的收视率都在增长。

Patrick T. Fallon/法新社/盖蒂图片社

福克斯新闻没有播出的内容，以及这对中期选举意味着什么

在与投资者和分析师的电话会议上，默多克表示，尽管最近有所下滑，但福克斯新闻的业务“状况非常好”。

他认为，2025年发生的一系列重大新闻事件将使福克斯新闻今年的表现难以与之相提并论。他列举了唐纳德·特朗普总统的就职典礼、查理·柯克遇刺以及福克斯新闻对狗狗币的关注等事件。

他说：“去年这个时候新闻铺天盖地，我们以此为参照。但即便如此，我们也发现观众出现了一些疲劳感，这种情况以前也出现过。”

默多克补充道：“这次选举周期与 2006 年中期选举有些类似，虽然不完全一样，但也有相似之处。当时，一位连任总统在第二个任期过半时参加中期选举，结果就出现了观众的疲劳现象。”

2006年，时任总统乔治·W·布什的支持率几乎和特朗普现在的支持率一样低。

默多克表示，福克斯新闻的观众“不会去看其他新闻频道。他们不会转而观看MS NOW或CNN。他们只是感到疲惫，所以总体上看电视的时间……略有减少。”

默多克关于2025年收视率难以与去年同期进行比较的言论，被上周公布的10月份收视率数据所驳斥。2025年10月并非新闻特别繁忙的月份。然而，福克斯新闻的收视率同比下降了27%，而CNN的收视率上升了3%，微软NOW的收视率上升了17%。

在25至54岁年龄段的观众中，福克斯电视台的收视率下滑和微软NOW的增长更为显著。总体而言，福克斯电视台在25至54岁年龄段的收视率创下了自2001年8月以来的最低水平。

默多克告诉投资者，“我们已经见过这种套路了”，并且“知道如何应对”。

为什么特朗普最喜欢的CNN哈里·恩滕视频“并非全部真相”

福克斯新闻早已习惯收视率受观众情绪波动的影响。2020年，特朗普的支持者攻击福克斯新闻准确报道他败给乔·拜登后，福克斯的收视率急剧下降。收视率的压力让一些福克斯的主持人和制片人感到焦虑，他们随后开始传播特朗普关于选举的谎言，导致多起诽谤诉讼。

通过 Dominion 的诽谤诉讼获得的电子邮件和短信显示，福克斯的高管们将收视率下降视为一场“品牌危机”，需要举办一场“全美式烧烤派对，提供热狗和汉堡包，以帮助我们渡过难关”。

随着时间的推移，福克斯新闻的基本盘又重新收看了特朗普的节目，特朗普也重新确立了他对共和党的控制权。

这次的情况可能会更加复杂，因为中期选举后的时期实际上是 2028 年总统初选的开始——而特朗普不会作为候选人参选。