On a midterm election night that was a huge disappointment for Republicans, with Democrats taking control of the US House and Senate, the country’s most prominent conservative television network felt the brunt of viewer disillusionment with Donald Trump and his party, according to preliminary audience numbers. The Fox News Channel, which often leads in viewership on election night, appears to have come out far behind the competition. According to preliminary “Fast Nationals” ratings dating from the Nielsen firm, the network averaged 3.882 million total viewers between 8 and 11pm, far behind broadcast networks NBC (6.519 million viewers) and ABC (4.906 million viewers), and even trailing fellow cable networks CNN (3.927 million viewers) and MS Now (3.922 million viewers).
Fox News did, however, defeat CBS News, which attracted just 2.629 million viewers. Because the numbers are preliminary, they are likely to be revised upwards when final audience data is released on Thursday. Overall, the big six television networks averaged 25.784 million total viewers during prime-time election coverage, up from 22.215 million total viewers in 2022.
During those 2022 elections, Fox News averaged 7.422 million viewers. With Trump reaching historic levels of unpopularity, Fox News has seen viewers tune out in recent months. Last month, the network’s viewership was down 27% compared with the same month last year in total day viewers, though it still handily defeated CNN and MS Now.
Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of parent company Fox Corp, acknowledged “viewer fatigue” in an earnings call on Monday. Trump, who criticized Fox throughout election night and blamed the network for his party’s losses, poked fun at the network’s October figures in a Truth Social post, chalking up the decline to the channel’s industry-standard practice of booking Democratic candidates for interviews. It’s them, not me – My numbers are better than they have ever been.”
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