Preliminary numbers released Wednesday revealing viewership during primetime news coverage of the 2026 midterm elections indicated that the country’s largest conservative-leaning network suffered a profound ratings slump as Republicans faced a nationwide blue wave down the ballot.
Around 27 million people tuned in to gather updates on Tuesday across the six largest TV networks, marking a 22% increase from the last midterm elections in 2022, according to preliminary Nielsen data.
At 6.80 million viewers, NBC posted the top performance, edging out Fox News. Four years ago, Fox led all networks with an audience of nearly 7.5 million. Viewership on the channel, lately and vigorously accused by President Donald Trump of being too cozy with Democrats, declined roughly 45% in the latest election cycle, beating out only CBS, which ranked last with 2.73 million viewers.
Trump credited less airtime spent backing Republicans for Fox News’s ratings slump. The network’s viewership decline on election night came on a dismal evening for the Republican Party, which lost majorities in the House and Senate, along with governing trifectas in multiple battleground states.
“FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats! All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it,” Trump said in an Election Night post to Truth Social.” It’s them, not me — My numbers are better than they have ever been.”
He accused Fox Corp. of donating immense sums of money to Democrats, including “the California Dumocratic Party, the Dumocratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Dumocratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, the CHC Bold PAC, and the New Dumocrat Coalition Action Fund.”
“No wonder FoxNews Ratings are collapsing, and they’re going to go down a lot further. They’re way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!” Trump claimed. “This happened once before, and Fox almost collapsed. It’s happening again!”
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While Fox News took a hit, CNN captured a win, according to the preliminary rankings, with 4.18 million viewers marking a significant rise from its 2022 total of 2.6 million.
NBC’s surge came as the network’s special analyst, Steve Kornacki, delighted many viewers with an engaging election marathon that came to an abrupt end after more than 10 hours, when he was forced to leave for a bathroom break.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
