Bret Baier says he’s now doing things at Fox News Channel that he couldn’t do when he joined the channel in 1998.
Baier, who has placed greater emphasis on exchanging ideas with world leaders and news producers in recent months, caught an on-camera interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He is expected to meet with billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos on Wednesday evening. In the weeks leading up to the nation’s 2026 midterm elections, Baier will travel across the country in hopes of speaking to Senate candidates from both parties.
In the past, “we may not have tried that kind of corporate reporting very much,” Baier says in a recent interview. “We’re trying to do a lot more than that right now.”
Fox News Channel is getting a lot of attention for its anchor-driven prime time programming, but Baier argues that the news division needs to get its due. “There’s an investment in news that I think has always been there, but it’s definitely increased,” he says, under the direction of Fox News Media’s top executives, CEO Suzanne Scott and president and editor-in-chief Jay Wallace. Fox News gave news staffers like Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich their own solo hours on weekends and ended its weekday schedule with a news hour led by Trace Gallagher. Foreign correspondent Trey Yingst is gaining attention on social media as well as on Fox News’ linear platforms. Fox News even attracts the attention of blue-state news producers like Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who interviewed host Martha MacCallum in studio.
On some nights, the network may even avoid Greg Gutfeld’s 10 p.m. comedic style in favor of airing breaking news on a particularly serious story.
In a different era, news of most TV operations “spread” during the daytime, and the process stopped at 7 p.m., Wallace says. But he notes that “social media has changed a lot of that,” adding that audiences are acutely aware of “so much information coming out at different times.” “We have improved.”
Fox News executives don’t do a lot of press interviews, and the company’s willingness to have Wallace open for a wide-ranging discussion about its news operations as Fox News touts its 30th anniversaryThis anniversary reflects the importance such events will have in the coming weeks. Election news often draws a larger audience to all of the nation’s TV news organizations, and advertising dollars that attempt to track such activity also increase.
While Fox News offers stability this election season, many of its rivals are adapting to corporate maneuvering. MS NOW, which is part of Versant, will cover this year’s first midterm elections without newsgathering help from NBC News. Both CBS News and CNN, Paramount and Warner Bros. It seems that the Ellison family’s vehicle, which is a combination of Discovery, will be examined this year in terms of its performances within the scope of Skydance. The Ellisons have demonstrated close ties with the Trump administration, and the appointment of digital entrepreneur and opinion journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News sparked significant controversy.
“We’re not out there to court other people’s audiences,” Wallace says. Instead, he says, Fox News hopes to attract viewers with engaging newsmaker interviews and top-notch polling analysis, while the network’s overall reach makes it a venue newsmakers shouldn’t avoid.
“It’s hard to go after another channel’s audience,” he says. Instead, Fox News created its own coverage. “We’ve really broadened the base of our audience,” he adds. He will keep an eye on the competition. When companies merge, he says, “These people are going to lose their jobs no matter what. At the end of the day, these are people who have to deal with the economics of the business.” Skydance said Tuesday it plans to face $6 billion in corporate cuts, “primarily from technology, integration and acquisition, marketing and real estate rationalization,” and the company’s top executives said in a note that some layoffs could occur.
Fox News struggles with many of the same secular trends as its rivals. Consumers are moving away from cable subscriptions and toward digital, where many enjoy receiving news and insights from independent “creators” and single-subject experts. Indeed, Pew-Knight Initiative research has found that adults under 30 — the audiences traditional news organizations need to engage with — follow the news less than other age groups. They are also much more likely than older adults to get news from social media.
Fox News remains the most-watched news source on cable, reaching a larger live audience most nights than one or more of the broadcast networks. But its subscriber base is eroding, as are MS NOW and CNN. In the third quarter, Fox News’ total daily viewers dropped 16%, and viewers ages 25 to 54, the demographic most coveted by news advertisers, also dropped 24%. Both CNN and MS NOW saw small increases in overall viewership during this period. At the same time, Fox News is gaining the largest percentage of cable news viewers this year.
Fox News develops a following by tracking viewing behavior and interests and “staying ahead” of consumption trends, Wallace says. He points to a growing cadre of on-the-ground experts like Yingst and Washington correspondent Bill Melugin, who frequently deliver dispatches from war-torn areas around the world. “Our reporters are so good and we’re so good at picking up stories so quickly that sometimes it doesn’t suit us to send a Bill Hemmer from New York,” he says, pointing to a typical TV news maneuver when a story has national significance.
But Fox News, like other journalism organizations, is navigating a world where a new generation of reporters has become accustomed to talking to their followers in less formal ways through social media. Fox News often hires from local news staff, Wallace says, and “local news really pushes them to market in social media spaces, I think they come here with a different perspective.”
It’s a place for rapid news coverage, the executive says, and a place where interactions can be more controlled.
“At the end of the day, I think the suit and tie still speaks volumes when it comes to television and television news,” Wallace says. Still, he recognizes that other venues require different looks and environments. Fox News Channel’s presentation “may be a little more formal,” but news anchors of every generation can be present on social media, and “there’s a big difference there.”
He says Fox News wants to “be organic in the right space” and will tailor its efforts to the venue its viewers and followers use.
Will the Fox News election team have to tread carefully in November? Many polls show key Senate and House seats could flip. In the past, Fox News has made an effort to show its viewers how bad elections can go. There was the famous long hallway walk in 2012, when Megyn Kelly questioned officials at the news organization’s Decision Desk on camera about how President Obama was poised to win another term. When Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden early on Election Night in 2020, it had to grapple with the backlash from President Trump and his supporters.
Baier says Election Night is “our Super Bowl” and the key to a successful telecast is announcing the votes. “It’s about the numbers and what the numbers are,” he says.
Wallace says viewers will also want to get a feel for the new stories that could emerge from the wins. If Democrats win the night, they may have to contend with far-left candidates who could argue over policy and procedure.
Baier says the election is important for other reasons, too. These give Fox News a new chance to hear from its viewers, which can only help. Audiences “are talking about issues and things people care about,” he says. “I love this time because it allows us to hear people’s voices more than on an average day.”