So it’s not exactly King Lear 2016, but the dark clouds swirling around Fox News and its acting chair, monarch Rupert, are beginning to gather. Remember his essential doctrine: he doesn’t back losers. His mystique rests on backing winners. Thatcher, Reagan, Blair, Bush, Brexit … but now comes Trump.

Rupert Murdoch was no Trump fan, initially – he was tweeting warm thoughts about Ben Carson and Marco Rubio before they departed and The Donald was the last Republican left standing. The latter was embraced by Fox because he brought fat ratings and prospectively fatter profits. But that sticky embrace looks problematic now.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump sticks to Fox and Fox appearances like glue. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

For one thing, Trump sticks to Fox and Fox appearances like glue. For another, though Roger Ailes may have departed the news channel he created – pursued by sexual allegations – he’s found a new role prepping Trump for the presidential debate. And Sean Hannity, star Fox presenter, seems to have gone OTT with on-air rants against fellow Republicans who don’t think Donald’s the true far-right deal.

(“If we elect Hillary because you are so stubborn, arrogant and stupid, that can’t say ‘radical Islam’ and can’t engage an enemy and identify it, that’s your fault! And if you help elect the single most corrupt person to ever seek the presidency… somebody who sold out her office for gain… somebody who has failed on Iran and Isis and radical Islam in general, and Iraq and Iran and Syria and North Africa and Libya, I’m blaming you!”).

All of which is a problem. Fox News’ average viewer is nearly 70. The channel’s fantastically profitable: well over $1bn a year. But it needs to move on, to refurbish, to scotch the spreading sex allegations, to connect to new generations. James and Lachlan, the two heirs in waiting, clearly understand that.

But does emergency executive chairman dad, 85, and the two co-presidents and old Fox retainers he’s promoted in loco Ailes? It’s an odd way of sweeping out stables and an odder way of building a fresher future. So, the rumours of family fuming mount. What would happen if Trump (and Republican majorities on Capitol Hill) go down to defeat in November? Who gets blamed? Not for being stubborn, arrogant and stupid, perhaps. But for still being in charge when winners turned to losers.