Fox News is not having a very good time at the moment, as the network is suffering through one of its most dramatic ratings spirals in a long, long time. Fox lost almost a third of its viewing audience in several key demographics just a few days before the midterm elections. The massive tumble in ratings comes amid public attacks against the network from President Donald Trump, who claims the network has a pro-Democrat bias.
Nielsen ratings for the month of October 2026 showed a shocking year-over-year drop for the once top-rated conservative-leaning cable news channel. Fox News averaged roughly 1.1 million total-day viewers, which is a decline of 27% compared to the ratings brought in this time a year ago. The outlet also took a huge hit in the 25-54 demographic, which is the most coveted among advertisers.
Viewers belonging in that particular group fell 32% to an average of only 98,000. This marks the weakest performance for the network in this demographic in over 25 years. Even worse news for Fox, the decline also struck their prime time numbers, where the network pulled in approximately 2 million viewers, a drop of 28% from last October.
According to a report from Newsmax, the prime time audience for adults ages 25-54 took an even steeper plunge of 36%, bringing in only 183,000. The company’s flagship program, “Fox & Friends,” pulled in less than a million viewers for the second month in a row. The conservative-leaning network is experiencing a major downshift just as President Trump is starting to raise questions concerning the outlet’s loyalty to conservative viewers.
However, CNN is reporting that insiders at Fox think the decline is due to Trump’s ability to bring in an audience diminishing, with one Fox News host telling the rival network that, “Trump doesn’t rate anymore.” CNN then said that “the Murdochs are thinking about a post-Trump era and looking ahead to the 2028 presidential election,” pointing out that the network has largely moved away from covering Trump’s live events and rallies.
As all of this is happening, Fox Corp.’s political contributions are being heavily scrutinized. The network’s parent company donated at least $268,500 contributions to Democratic political candidates and left-wing political committees during this most recent election cycle, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.
A few of the individuals who have received funds from Fox Corp. are critics of the president, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who received a donation of $2,500, and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, received a donation of $1,000. Rep. Ted Lieu of California was given $2,500, and Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York received $2,500.
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Trump also accused Fox of giving excessive airtime to Democrat candidates, while not providing as much to members of the GOP. “FoxNews is spending far too much time putting on the OPPONENTS of Republican Party Candidates,” Trump wrote in a post published on Truth Social. In a separate post, Trump said, “Fox is promoting the Dumocrats, not the Republicans and MAGA. They have totally lost their way!” He then said that if the GOP loses control of Congress in the midterms, Fox will bear a lot of the responsibility.