OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Many scripted projects and late-night shows have gone dark for over a week now amid the WGA Writers Strike. However, not all of the late-night shows have gone off the air.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s top-rated late-night comedy show “Gutfeld!” is still airing new episodes. Amid the writers’ strike, other late-night shows such as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and “The Daily Show” have halted production. Gutfeld and his team are not WGA members.
Earlier this year, Gutfeld! rose to become the No. 1 late-night show in its time slot, besting the other network offerings whose hosts are almost always liberal.
His Fox News began averaging 2.1 million viewers through 2022, Nielsen Media Research showed, the Washington Times reported.
“The size of that viewing audience bests both NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ and ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and also consistently trumps such cable rivals as Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ and HBO’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ and ‘Real Time With Bill Maher,’” the report said.
Vox, known to be more of a liberal news organization, opined that “The biggest comedy show on late-night right now is not on ABC or NBC or CBS or Fox. It’s not on Comedy Central. It’s certainly not streaming. It’s on Fox News, and its name is ‘Gutfeld!’”
Gutfeld continues to be the most dominant force in cable news as a co-host of both “The Five” and also his late-night show “Gutfeld!”
The popular host also just announced a new book, titled, “The King of Late Night,” which will be released July 25, and details how Gutfeld “destroyed the mainstream late-night landscape of heavyweights and became the host of the #1 late night show in all of television.”
A separate report also notes how Gutfeld’s late-night show has brought in historic viewership for Fox News.
“The show replaced news program Fox News @ Night in April 2021, and has made double-digit gains on Fox since, with a 44 percent boost in total viewers and a 25 percent gain in the key 25-54 age demographic. Since its debut, Gutfeld! has averaged 1.9 million total viewers and 332,000 in the key demo. That audience has only grown from the debut: its first episode brought in about 1.7 million viewers total and 318,000 demo viewers — a strong showing that topped all of cable news at 11 p.m.,” Mediaite reported.
As of now, Gutfeld appears to be the undisputed top host at Fox News in terms of viewership.
“The Five” remains one of the most popular shows in all of cable news and his late-night comedy show “Gutfeld!” has been racking up historic numbers.
Gutfeld has also been going to bat for his former longtime colleague.
Perhaps in a move to defy his superiors, Gutfeld also joked about Carlson running for president, slammed another colleague for attacking Carlson, and even defended Tucker after several videos leaked this week.
Gutfeld, a co-host of “The Five” and host of his late-night show “Gutfeld,” defended Carlson on Tuesday after several video clips were leaked and published by the leftist group Media Matters.
The outlet has shared several of the behind-the-scenes comments from Carlson, which show him joking and having conversations with either guests or staff members before the show began.
Gutfeld took to Twitter to defend Carlson by likening Media Matters to high school hall monitors trying to get him in trouble.
Gutfeld defended Carlson twice last week, once on Twitter and another time during an episode of “The Five.”
Gutfeld took to Twitter to hit back at his colleague Geraldo Rivera, who had issued some seething comments about Carlson after his departure.
In response, Gutfeld hit back at Rivera for taking a shot at Carlson, which came across as Gutfeld was offering support to his former colleague.
