For the last four years, Fox News and former President Trump have been impenetrably linked. The former defended Trump at all costs, filling hours of airtime with right-wing pundits who sympathized with every action he made. In return, the latter would frequently retweet segments he liked and granted Fox News more than ten times the interviews than he did with any other major network. This was a relationship created out of convenience; Trump needed Fox News to insist he was doing a good job, and Fox liked Trump because of the massive ratings boost he gave to the network. This was, of course, until election night of 2020.  

On November 3rd, at 11:20 p.m. Eastern time, the Fox News Decision Desk was the first to call the state of Arizona and its eleven electoral votes for then-candidate Joe Biden. The Trump campaign, which, up until that point, had been in relatively high spirits after pulling off an upset in Florida, quickly panicked. Jared Kushner (the former President’s son-in-law) frantically called Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News, and pleaded with him to change the projection, but to no avail. Fox News, which so often shuns its news division in favor of opinion and conspiracy, was sticking with its decision desk. On Saturday morning, November 7th, Fox News declared Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States.  

In the weeks that followed, President Trump began his campaign of disinformation about the election, claiming that it had been rigged for the Democrats (despite Republicans gaining house seats) and that he had been re-elected by a “landslide.” In the past, Trump had relied on Fox News to defend his actions to his supporters. Whether it was the Russia investigation, Charlottesville, or the quid pro quo with Ukraine and subsequent impeachment, Fox had always been Trump’s knight in shining armor, ready to go to war for him. Individual personalities did initially protect him, including Lou Dobbs, whose show was recently canceled due to a lawsuit levied against Fox by the voting machine company Smartmatic, alleging defamation by multiple Fox News hosts. However, overall, the network stayed firm in its belief that Joe Biden was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. Soon after, even Trump’s most ardent supporters begrudgingly accepted this reality.   

To put it mildly, Trump was not happy about this and quickly began to fight back. He told his supporters that Fox “wasn’t working for them anymore” and that they had been “betrayed.” He started driving his fans to other smaller conservative channels, ones more conspiratorial and Trump-loving than even Fox News. These channels include Newsmax and OANN, both of which waited months before declaring Joe Biden President-elect.   

In the past, Fox News had brushed off these tiny competitors, often scoffing at the idea they would ever be as big or as successful as Fox. This changed after the election. Before election night, Greg Kelly, Newsmax’s highest-rated host, would average roughly 30,000 viewers in the 25-54-year-old demographic, which is the demo most important in determining advertising rates. By comparison, in the same time slot, Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, part of the “news” division, would garner close to half a million viewers. In the weeks following election night, Kelly’s viewership jumped up to nearly 200,000 viewers in the demo. At the same time, MacCallum plummeted to less than 300,000. This ratings earthquake culminated on December 7th when, for the first time, Greg Kelly beat MacCallum. That night marked the first time any Fox News show lost to its Trump-loving younger brother.   

This victory would only last one night, as MacCallum quickly pulled back ahead. However, it was enough to shake the core of Fox News. They knew they were no longer the only player in town and that their viewers did not want hard news: they wanted to hear what they wanted to hear. In response, Fox News decided to move MacCallum from her 7 p.m. time slot to the less desirable 3 p.m. slot and replaced her show with another hour of hard-opinion right-wing talk, more in line with their highest-rated shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity. This decision was Fox waving the white flag, silently acknowledging that ratings and money were more important than truth and journalistic integrity. While there are still some phenomenal journalists at Fox, such as Chris Wallace and Bret Baier, it is clear the opinion side has won. There are now discussions of Fox potentially giving President Trump his own show on Fox, which means any dream of Fox News venturing back to the center-right will likely not happen. As long as Trump is what viewers want, Trump is what they will get. 

Sean Chopra ’24 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at chopra.s@wustl.edu.