Fox News Has Its Weakest Month in 25 Years, Offering a Glimpse of Post-Trump Shockwave

Fox News Channel’s ratings are cratering amidst the midterm elections when they ought to be booming. The dip gives a glimpse of what’s ahead for press organizations built around President Trump’s MAGA movement, alerting them — and the advertisers they rely on — that a new business model is required for the years ahead.Fox, according to Nielsen figures released on Wednesday, averaged about 1.1 million total-day viewers last month, a 27 percent drop from October 2025. Among the group that advertisers covet, adults of ages between 25 and 54, viewership dropped 32 percent to 98,000 on average — the network’s lowest showing since the late 1990s.Only the election for New York City mayor offered much drama in October 2025, with sleepy gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia. By comparison, this October ought to have been a boon for Fox with lots of dynamic candidates running and compelling storylines to go with them.Cable’s top-rated morning news program, “Fox & Friends,” averaged fewer than a million viewers for the second consecutive month in October. The show, which Mr. Trump sometimes calls, averaged 1.5 million viewers in March of last year as his second term began, including 200,000 in the demographic of between 25 and 54 years.Fox, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, was launched in 1996 to offer conservative voices during President Clinton’s Democratic administration. It grew into a platform for opposition when the party won the House, Senate, and White House under Mr. Obama in 2008.Both Presidents Clinton and Obama have been on the hustings with Mr. Trump this year as if, this columnist wrote last week, they’re all candidates. In that environment, it’s striking that Fox would see its lowest ratings since December 2023, with no elections around. December is already TV’s second lowest-rated month, ahead only of July and August.Fox leads all major cable news channels, but CNN and MS NOW posted year-over-year gains for October. That growth occurred despite the former MSNBC ending its partnership with NBC last November, requiring it to build news-gathering infrastructure and studios from scratch.One factor in Fox’s slide is that Mr. Trump has soured on the channel, offering complaints even as he plucks its former talkers for administration posts. Another element is that the approval ratings of the president himself have hit all-time lows, with Fox putting it at 36 percent.With Mr. Trump no longer drawing the eyeballs he once did, Fox has scaled back coverage of his events. “Our people,” the president posted October 4 on Truth Social, “want to see our rallies … on Fox News, or they will very quickly stop watching.”Pro-Trump websites served as a canary in the coal mine for Fox’s troubles. “Analyses by Similarweb,” I wrote for the Sun in June, “found that 90 percent of the top right-wing sites saw drops in visits between May 2025 and May 2026.” The top 20 sites monitored by TheRighting, an aggregator of conservative outlets, all “saw double-digit declines.”Faced with Washington’s changing power dynamics, Fox Corporation has sought to curry favor with those poised to be the victorious opposition. Federal Election Commission records show that the company contributed at least $268,500 to Democrats and political committees aligned with them during this election cycle.Yet buying into the good graces of Democrats may not be possible. They already have organizations they prefer, including Fox’s rivals. The party may choose, as Mr. Clinton did when it launched and Mr. Obama did during his presidency, not to provide high-profile guests to Fox, starving it of political A-listers.Fox’s era won’t end with Mr. Trump’s term in office. Yet the network’s slide demonstrates the risks of riding a political wave. In Washington, today’s backbenchers may be tomorrow’s power brokers and, as a 19th-century writer, Charles Dudley Warner, put it, “The public is wonderfully fickle.”

Fox News Has Its Weakest Month in 25 Years, Offering a Glimpse of Post-Trump Shockwave

Fox News Has Its Weakest Month in 25 Years, Offering a Glimpse of Post-Trump Shockwave

More from the New York Sun

Barring Unexpected Election Day Losses, Schumer Looks Undefeatable as Returning Democratic Leader

Charges Against James Comey Hang in Balance as Judge Warns Trump Administration Against ‘Dawn Raid’ Arrest

Welcome to Washington: The Redistricting Wars Are Just Getting Started

Multiple Counties Plan To Keep DOJ Election Monitors Outside of Polling Places on Tuesday

Democratic Socialists Poised for Major Gains in Congress as ‘Squad’ Set To Expand

In ‘Waiting for Lefty,’ Class Struggle Remains Unfinished Business

North Korea’s Highly Paid Cyber-Warriors Steal the Billions Needed To Finance Nuclear and Missile Programs

My Prediction — Voters, Not Polls Will Decide This Election

More from the New York Sun

Barring Unexpected Election Day Losses, Schumer Looks Undefeatable as Returning Democratic Leader

Charges Against James Comey Hang in Balance as Judge Warns Trump Administration Against ‘Dawn Raid’ Arrest

Welcome to Washington: The Redistricting Wars Are Just Getting Started

Multiple Counties Plan To Keep DOJ Election Monitors Outside of Polling Places on Tuesday

Democratic Socialists Poised for Major Gains in Congress as ‘Squad’ Set To Expand

In ‘Waiting for Lefty,’ Class Struggle Remains Unfinished Business

North Korea’s Highly Paid Cyber-Warriors Steal the Billions Needed To Finance Nuclear and Missile Programs

My Prediction — Voters, Not Polls Will Decide This Election