Eric Bolling of Fox News’s “The Five” has been suspended while the network investigates a report that he sent at least three female colleagues a lewd text message. (Richard Drew/AP)

Through crisis after crisis, shake-up after shake-up, one thing about Fox News Channel is apparent: Its viewers aren’t going anywhere.

The network has endured more than a year of firings, lawsuits, management turnover, resignations of its top stars and more changes to its prime-time lineup than a public-access station. And yet it continues to be cable’s most popular attraction, defying predictions of its decline, let alone its demise.

If recent history is any guide, the latest whiff of scandal at Fox won’t make much difference, either. The network on Saturday suspended Eric Bolling, one of its rising stars, following a news report that he texted lewd photos to three female colleagues several years ago. Fox said the allegations are under investigation. In the meantime, it has scrubbed Bolling, Soviet-style, from some of its social media accounts, raising questions about whether he’ll be back.

The accusation was another iteration of what one former Fox commentator, in an unrelated lawsuit, ­described as “a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult” at Fox at odds with the network’s usual promotion of traditional values.

Since July 2016, the news channel has lost its founder and chief mastermind (the late Roger Ailes, forced out amid sexual harassment allegations); its biggest star (Bill O’Reilly, same reason); its second-biggest star (Megyn Kelly, alienated by Ailes and O’Reilly); its fourth-biggest attraction (Greta Van Susteren, contract dispute); and its co-president (Bill Shine, named as an Ailes enabler in harassment complaints). Charles Payne, the host of a Fox Business Network program, was suspended last month amid more ­sexual-harassment allegations (Payne, Shine, Bolling and O’Reilly have denied the claims against them, as did Ailes).

What’s more, Fox is still fending off residual harassment lawsuits from the Ailes era, a racial-discrimination class-action claim, and a federal investigation of its accounting of payments to former employees; some of those funds settled harassment claims. (Fox and its parent company, 21 Century Fox, have said they are cooperating with investigators).

And still, its viewers have persisted.

So far this year, Fox’s overall ratings have increased 18 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research. Its average audience at any hour (1.54 million) is nearly twice that of its two major competitors, CNN and MSNBC — combined. Fox has beaten CNN and MSNBC for 187 consecutive months, or for about 15½ years.

In fact, Fox may be better off without its two erstwhile stars, O’Reilly and Kelly. O’Reilly’s replacement, Tucker Carlson, has drawn lower ratings than O’Reilly overall, but Carlson has attracted more viewers in the 25-to-54 age group, the key target for news advertisers. Kelly’s replacement at 9 p.m., “The Five,” has also drawn fewer viewers but given the saving on O’Reilly and Kelly’s enormous salaries, Fox may have profited as a result of their departures.

Amid the tumult, Fox seems to have remained Fox. In its prime-time commentary, the network has continued a supportive attitude toward President Trump (as he has of Fox). Prime-time hosts have remained skeptical of mainstream reporting about him, particularly of allegations that his presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government. Sean Hannity, a leading Fox personality, has even gone so far as to call the various investigations into Trump “a silent coup” against the president.

Fox declined to comment on the reasons for its steadfast viewership. Spokeswoman Carly Shanahan said in statement Monday, “We have an incredibly loyal audience which values both our news and opinion programming.”

Fox remains popular in part because it doesn’t have an ideological competitor to challenge for its core audience, said Dan Cassino, a professor who has studied Fox. One America, an upstart conservative network, is distributed to less than 30 percent of TV households, making it far too small to attract a broad audience, he said.

Cassino notes that a “constant sense of crisis” under Trump has compelled viewing of Fox’s competitors, too. Both CNN and MSNBC have seen their ratings grow this year, even compared with the elevated levels during the presidential campaign last year. The biggest winner has been MSNBC, which has positioned itself as the anti-Trump network during its prime-time commentary shows; the network remains far behind Fox overall, but has vaulted past CNN overall.

Indeed, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has become the biggest attraction on cable, outgunning Hannity and Carlson, thanks in part to her relentless anti-Trump focus. “The Rachel Maddow Show” was the top-rated program among all cable news programs in July, the first time a non-Fox News program has done so since CNN’s “Larry King Live” in October 2001.

But the rest of the news about cable news is about the loyalty of those watching Fox.

“No one likes being told that they’re stupid,” Cassino said. “The conservative base of Fox viewers voted overwhelmingly for Trump, so there’s an audience for someone telling them that they did the right thing. Fox has spent 20 years telling viewers that they can’t trust other media sources. It shouldn’t comes as a surprise that they’ve internalized the message.”