Fox News Ratings Suffered Largest Pre-Election Month Drop in a Decade
In the “two things can be true” category: Fox News still holds sizable ratings leads in cable news over CNN and MS NOW. It also suffered the largest year-to-year ratings drop in the month before an election in the past 10 years.
Nielsen ratings for October show Fox News averaging 1.68 million viewers in primetime and 1.01 million for the full day. Both are comfortably ahead of MS NOW (925,000 primetime, 588,000 full day) and CNN (598,000, 402,000). In the key news demographic of adults 25-54, things are a bit closer, but Fox’s totals of 145,000 in primetime and 98,000 for the total day still lead. CNN had 107,000 in the demo in primetime and 60,000 for the full day to 95,000 and 62,000 for MS NOW.
Fox also had the five most watched cable news shows, led by The Five at 2.7 million daily viewers.
Fox News is also touting its online strength, citing 3.8 billion YouTube views for 2026 so far (as measured by social media analytics firm Emplifi) to 2.96 billion for MS NOW and 2.36 billion for CNN.
As for the second true thing: In the past decade, none of the three biggest cable news outlets have suffered a decline in the month before a national election as big as Fox News did this year.
Compared to October 2025, Fox News slipped by 28 percent in primetime viewers and 27 percent for the full day. The networks’ adults 25-54 audience fell by more than 30 percent. MS NOW and CNN both had double digit percentage gains in primetime vs. a year earlier; MS NOW also did so for the full day, while CNN had a more modest 3 percent bump.
Pundits and media analysts have suggested that President Trump’s low approval ratings and an election cycle that seems to favor Democrats may have contributed to the drop at Fox News. Nielsen data doesn’t explain why people watch or don’t watch certain programs or networks, obviously. But the change is a stark one.
The Hollywood Reporter analyzed October cable news ratings for the past six national election cycles — presidential contests in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and midterms in 2018, 2022 and 2026 — and compared each to the previous October (2015, 2017, etc.). Unsurprisingly, all three networks showed huge year-to-year gains in October 2016 and October 2020. Fox improved substantially in October 2024 as well, with total day ratings up about 20 percent vs. October 2023. MS NOW was flat and CNN declined in October 2024 total day ratings (though both grew in primetime).
Midterm years are more of a mixed bag: Before this year, biggest improvement was a 25 percent year-to-year boost in primetime viewers for Fox in October 2018, and the steepest fall was a 20 percent drop in primetime adults 25-54 for MSNBC (MS NOW’s predecessor) in 2022.
October 2026 set new marks for the biggest swing in both directions. Fox News’ declines have no recent precedent in the month prior to an election. On the other end, CNN had 40 percent growth in its primetime adults 25-54 audience vs. a year ago, and both of MS NOW’s 25-54 averages grew (30 percent in primetime, 38 percent in total day).
Month-to-month numbers weren’t as drastic for any outlet, but Fox News was down a bit from September (off 2.5 percent in primetime and 1 percent all day) and MS NOW (up 10 percent in primtime, 8 percent all day) and CNN (up 11 percent in primetime, 8 percent for the full day) grew.
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