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By Marni Rose McFall
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Fox News, the most-watched cable network in America, lost 27 percent of its total day viewers in October compared with a year earlier, and its total day audience among adults aged 25-54 fell 32 percent to an average of 98,000 viewers, the lowest monthly level in 25 years, according to data from Nielsen.
In widely reported remarks on an earning call on Monday, Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News, said: “What we are seeing is some viewer fatigue, where our viewers have gone through an incredible news cycle last year with the inauguration, the Charlie Kirk tragedy, DOGE, flooding."
“Those viewers are not switching to another news channel; they are just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall. We have seen this playbook, and we know how to move through it,” he said.
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There has been some evidence of a broader audience pullback from traditional news, with a December 2025 study from the Pew Research Center finding that the number of Americans who said they follow the news all or most of the time has decreased since 2016.
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Thirty-six percent of adults said they followed the news all or most of the time in August 2025, compared to 51 percent in 2016, per the Pew study. Meanwhile, the Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that 45 percent of Americans sometimes or often avoid the news.
Despite the decline, Fox remains the dominant cable-news network in the country. It was the only cable network to average more than 1 million total-day viewers, ahead of ESPN despite the return of football and according to data from Nielsen, Comscore and Emplifi, Fox News accounted for 99 of the 100 highest-rated cable news telecasts during the month and is on pace for its highest-rated midterm election year in its 30-year history. The network also leverages 3.9 billion YouTube video views year-to-date, nearly 1 billion more than its closest cable news competitor.
But the shift, ahead of the pivotal midterm election and as the network has had a slight change in tone on President Donald Trump, begs the question of what Fox News viewers are watching instead.
Newsweek has reached out to Fox News’ press team for comment.
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Where Are Viewers Tuning in to?
While no other network has the same dominance as Fox News, there is some data reflecting where viewers may be turning. And it appears that individual media personalities are the force drawing viewers.
According to an analysis from Media Matters, the following six right-leaning shows that cover news and politics have seen subscriber growth on YouTube in recent months: Brandon Tatum's The Officer Tatum Show, Jeremy Hambly's The Quartering, The Colion Noir Podcast, Keeping It Real with Jillian Michaels, The Tim Dillon Show and Matt Fradd's Pints with Aquinas.
From March through August, The Officer Tatum Show added 120,000 new subscribers and had 209 million views.
The Quartering added 190,000 new subscribers through the same period and had nearly 96.3 million viewers.
The Colion Noir added 100,000 new subscribers and had 86 million views, Keeping It Real with Jillian Michaels added 135,000 new subscribers and had more than 34.2 million views, Pints with Aquinas added 66,000 new subscribers and had more than 26.6 million views and The Tim Dillon Show added 170,000 new subscribers and had 34.8 million views.
The same analysis identified three right-leaning news and politics shows that had an increase in viewership by tens of millions: The Glenn Beck Program, The Tucker Carlson Show and The Matt Walsh Show.
During the same March through August period, The Glenn Beck Program had 83.9 million views and added 80,000 subscribers, The Tucker Carlson Show had 347.8 million views and added 260,000 subscribers and The Matt Walsh Show from the Daily Wire added 90,000 new subscribers and had nearly 96.6 million views.
A similar personality-driven pattern was emerging earlier.
Research from Edison Podcast Metrics, published in August that featured a review of audience numbers for conservative podcasts, captured audience increases over weekly consumers from the fourth quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026.
The Tucker Carlson Show was up 13 percent, and the Glenn Beck Program was up 11 percent.
Other conservative shows, including the Megyn Kelly Show and the Shawn Ryan Show, had bigger boosts, up 115 percent and 107 percent, respectively.
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Has Fox News Changed Its Tone on Trump?
Fox News has shown a subtle shift in its attitude toward Trump, carrying fewer of the president's appearances live, and covering some negative polls about the president's widely reported poor approval rating. That has drawn the ire of the president, who has regularly hit out at the network in recent weeks.
“FoxNews spends more time covering the Jihadist and Dumocrat candidates than they do the good old fashioned Republicans, the people that have saved America, and are making it great again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in early October.
In September, he wrote on Truth Social: “MAGA, and REAL Patriots will never like Fox!”
He criticized the network for giving airtime to Democrats, writing: “Why does FoxNews always put Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Jessica Tarlov, and every Democrat on, saying bad things about the Republican Party and, of course, me?”
Fox News has previously seen fluctuations in its ratings that have hinged upon the mood among its viewership.
In 2020, Fox News was criticized by Trump allies and the MAGA contingent after it accurately reported that Trump had lost to former President Joe Biden in 2024, which in turn put pressure on viewership.
The network is still conservative in its core identity and has not become anti-Trump, but as the GOP begins to look ahead for what may come in 2028, it may be becoming less saturated.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Dave Siminoff.
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