Fox News ‘Viewer Fatigue’ Captures Notice of Fox CEO Murdoch, Who Vows to Press Forward

Fox News viewers still like Fox, they just can’t take any more news. A decline in viewership at Fox News Channel over the third quarter and into last month has attracted the notice of the company’s most senior executive, with Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch telling investors Monday he has seen evidence of “viewer fatigue” at the outlet, even though it continues to dominate ratings in the sector. “Those viewers are not going to any other news channel,” Murdoch said during an analyst call following the company’s most recent earnings release. Instead, he suggested, “they are just fatigued and watching slightly less television.” Executives at Fox News Media, he said, have seen the dynamic before and have a “playbook” and know how to navigate the trend. Competitors have noticed the trend in recent weeks, which surfaces ahead of midterm elections that polls have suggested are likely to be favorable for Democrats, and not the Republicans who are Fox News’ strongest audience. Fox News Channel was on track in October to post its lowest-rated month in total-day viewers since December 2023, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen. The cable network has won an average of 1.1 million total viewers for the month, down 27%, as well as 98,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic coveted by advertisers, a drop of 32%. The ratings decline comes amid a continuation of the drop-off in TV viewers overall — but Fox News has been losing viewers at a double-digit clip as CNN and MS NOW have been slightly up in recent months. Fox News on many nights draws a bigger live audience than one or more broadcast TV networks. But its viewership is steadily eroding: In the third quarter of 2026, Fox News saw total-day viewership decline 16%, and viewership in the 25-54 demo fall 24%. During the call, Murdoch suggested viewers had grown a little weary of watching the news after seeing difficult stories over the past year, such as the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. An election period is typically crucial to the economics of cable news, with a greater swath of viewers tuning in that is normal. News networks hope to convert election viewers to regular ones. Other TV-news outlets have navigated similar trends in the past. MS NOW, previously known as MSNBC, has grappled with viewer downturns amid environments that were not favorable for progressive and liberal viewers. And the trends at Fox News do not appear to have crimped Fox Corp.’s overall performance. The company said Monday that its recent World Cup telecasts and a spate of political advertising had boosted profit and revenue in its first fiscal quarter.