Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch told investors Monday that Fox News is seeing signs of "viewer fatigue," even though it still leads cable news in ratings, according to Variety. Speaking on an earnings call, Murdoch said that viewers who've stepped back "are not going to any other news channel." Instead, he said, they're "just fatigued and watching slightly less television." He said the network has seen this before and has a "playbook" for handling it. He tied some of the weariness to a year of heavy news, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The numbers show a clear drop. Preliminary Nielsen data put Fox News on track for its lowest-rated month in total-day viewers since December 2023. October averaged about 1.1 million viewers, down 27%. Among viewers ages 25 to 54, the group advertisers care about most, the average was 98,000, down 32%. In the third quarter, total viewership fell 16% and the 25-to-54 audience fell 24%. Over the same stretch, CNN and MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, ticked up slightly. The slide comes just ahead of midterms that polls suggest could favor Democrats over the Republican voters who make up Fox's core audience.

Fox executives aren't panicking. The network still drew more viewers in October than any other cable channel, often beats at least one broadcast network in live audience on many nights and is seeing strong engagement on digital platforms like YouTube. The ratings dip also hasn't hurt the parent company's bottom line. Fox Corp. said World Cup broadcasts and a wave of political ad spending boosted its revenue and profit in its first fiscal quarter.