Fox News leads October cable ratings despite year-on-year audience decline

Fox News led US cable news ratings in October 2026, but its audience fell from a year earlier while MS NOW and CNN gained viewers, Deadline reported on October 28. The comparison shows that Fox retained a substantial lead even as its rivals grew across several measures.

In primetime, Fox News averaged 1.68 million viewers, down 28% from October 2025. MS NOW averaged 925,000, up 14%, and CNN averaged 598,000, up 19%. Deadline said the Nielsen figures came through the networks.

How the October audiences compared

Across the full day, Fox averaged 1.1 million viewers, a 27% decline. MS NOW drew 588,000, up 16%, and CNN drew 402,000, up 3%. Among full-day viewers aged 25 to 54, Fox averaged 98,000, down 33%; MS NOW had 62,000, up 38%; and CNN had 60,000, up 2%.

Which cable news shows led

Fox held the five most watched cable news shows, according to Deadline. The Five led with an average of 2.7 million viewers, followed by Jesse Watters Primetime at 2.34 million and Special Report with Bret Baier at 2.02 million. Gutfeld! averaged 1.98 million, and The Ingraham Angle averaged 1.94 million.

MS NOW's leading programme, The Rachel Maddow Show, averaged 1.72 million viewers. CNN's leading programme, The Source with Kaitlan Collins, averaged 630,000. Fox's October decline followed a third quarter in which its primetime audience was down 17% and its full-day audience was down 16%, Deadline reported.

Fox News video views through October 27

Fox cited 3.8 billion YouTube video views from the start of 2026 through October 27, compared with 2.96 billion for MS NOW and 2.36 billion for CNN, Deadline reported, attributing the counts to Emplifi. Tampa Free Press separately reported Fox's total as more than 3.8 billion over that period, also citing Emplifi. Those video-view counts measure a different form of consumption from the Nielsen television audience averages.