OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Fox News personality and host Greg Gutfeld is continuing to dominate the cable news industry across a spectrum of venues, including his own successful late-night TV offering.
As co-host of the popular Fox afternoon program “The Five” and at the helm of the late-night “Gutfeld!”, the comedian and political analyst has managed to win two of the top three shows in cable news in the key 25-54 age demographic.
On Thursday, The Five, on which Gutfeld is a permanent co-host, topped the charts in the demo with 448,000 demo viewers, Mediate reported. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson landed in second place with 407,000 demo viewers, while Gutfeld! came in third with 379,000.
As for the three cable news networks overall, here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 demo:
Total viewers:
CNN: 593,000
Fox News: 1.75 million
MSNBC: 980,000
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 131,000
Fox News: 264,000
MSNBC: 107,000
Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — in total viewers and the 25-54 demo:
Total viewers:
CNN: 739,000
Fox News: 2.55 million
MSNBC: 1.41 million
25-54 Demo:
CNN: 158,000
Fox News: 362,000
MSNBC: 136,000
Fox News has been dominating the other cable news outlets for years, and its hosts have consistently been the highest-rated, including, of course, Gutfeld.
As noted by Forbes, Gutfeld’s weekend late-night show has been delivering massive viewership.
Like the way CNN is all but guaranteed to remain a favorite punching bag for Fox News Channel’s late-night host Greg Gutfeld, whose 11 pm show “Gutfeld!” has been a ratings powerhouse since its launch a little over a year ago now. Monday, by the way, was an important day for Gutfeld as well, marking the debut of a newer, expanded studio for his show — the second-most-watched late-night program in all of broadcast and cable.
In fact, you could argue that at least some of Gutfeld’s success (an average of almost 2 million viewers in April alone, topping Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon) is best understood within the context of missteps and ratings decline at CNN. To say nothing of the ideological like-mindedness across most of the late-night landscape.
“People don’t go to entertainment for homework,” Gutfeld told Forbes. “You don’t pay for homework. And it feels like there’s been this modern kind of woke culture where everything is being informed with a lesson you have to learn — it’s like, I don’t need to be lectured. I didn’t come here to be told how this is oppression and I have to, like, learn about these things. I came to be entertained.”
“If you’ve been watching my stuff, I spend a lot of time talking about media. Because I know the internal flaws of it. The Gutfeld show became successful, because it came at exactly the right time.” he said. “People have had it with being told that every institution in your life is somehow oppressor vs. oppressed.”
“The thing we did was we said we’re no different than you are. We’re looking at this stuff with a jaundiced eye. We get it. We’re on your side. So, I think it’s a combination of we’re entertainment, and we’re not homework.”
“My show is deliberately surreal and absurd, because I’m absurd. I call it the Dean Wormer effect. Dean Wormer was the bad guy in “Animal House” and was always kind of the hood ornament of what a Republican was, and everybody else has fun, right? … My goal was always to flip that. So that we’re the people having fun, and the left, Democrats, are the scolds. You see that now, with even Bill Maher saying, my god, my side is humorless and the other side is having fun.”
Carlson has had a good year as well, as his primetime show on Fox News smashed another key barrier earlier this year. And Sean Hannity also recently became the longest-running prime-time cable news host.
Hannity, who has been with Fox News since its launch in 1996, smashed another record after becoming a host for nearly 25 years and six months.
Hannity said, “I am extremely grateful to FOX News Media and to our loyal, dedicated viewers whom I am proud to serve every night.”
