"Gutfeld!," the new daily late-night Fox News show hosted by Greg Gutfeld, is doing extremely well. "The Greg Gutfeld Show," which Gutfeld hosted from its premiere in 2015 until it ended March 2021, topped late-night shows last April, and it was only on one night a week, on Saturday night.
The show premiered on Monday, April 5, at 11pm.
Right away, the show was off to a good start. Lindsey Ellefson of TheWrap reported on April 6 that "Greg Gutfeld’s Late-Night Debut on Fox News More Than Doubles Don Lemon’s Audience on CNN." As Ellefson wrote:
“Gutfeld!” pulled in an average of 1.681 million total viewers, according to early Nielsen Media Research ratings data. Of those, 318,000 were in the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54.
By comparison, the second hour of CNN’s “CNN Tonight,” which also airs at 11, averaged 678,000 total viewers and 190,000 demo viewers. On MSNBC, where Brian Williams was hosting “The 11th Hour,” an average of 1.211 million viewers tuned in. Of those, 183,000 were in the key demo.
Marisa Sarnoff reported for Mediaite that "Gutfeld! Off to a Strong Ratings Start for Fox News." It not only bested "CNN Tonight," but all other competitors for that time slot. It was a good night for Fox News overall, as well:
In total day viewers, Fox swept both categories, with nearly 1.5 million total viewers and 253,000 in the demo. MSNBC was second in total viewers, with 1.31 million, and third in the demo, with 183,000. CNN was third in total viewers, with 928,000, and second in the demo, with 249,000.
Fox won prime time as well, averaging 2.51 million viewers total, and 414,000 in the demo. MSNBC was second, with 2.06 million total viewers, and 300,000 in the demo. CNN was third, with 1.11 million total viewers, and 260,000 in the demo.
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While The Week highlighted how poorly "Gutfeld!" did on Twitter, it nevertheless had to acknowledge how well it did in the ratings. "Fox News' new comedy show bombs on Twitter but draws strong ratings," April 7's headline read.
While haters are gonna hate, it also looks like they have a sort of unhealthy preoccupation with "Gutfeld!" and the network, as if they're jealous.
The New Republic published Alex Shephard's "Is Gutfeld! the Worst Show on Television?" on April 8. I read the entire dribble of this piece so you don't have to. You're welcome by the way. I did so though to see if throughout all of his bizarre points, which include expletives, he mentioned "Gutfeld!'s" ratings. He did, sort of, in his very last paragraph, and he actually made it seem like a bad thing.
"It has, however, been something of a success, bringing in 1.7 million viewers. This probably feels more like a curse than a blessing, even to Greg Gutfeld. If Fox can’t cancel this show, he may be forced to do the same dumb, unfunny jokes forever," Shephard wrote, linking to Ellefson's piece but failing to directly mention that this dominated the time slot.
Kimberly Ricci, the Film/TV editor over at Uproxx has a particular bone to pick, criticizing the show on April 7 and April 8. In Wednesday's "Fox News’ ‘Comedy’ Show With Greg Gutfeld Is Sparking Brutal Reactions Over Its Cringeworthy Jokes," she casually acknowledged the show's ratings, writing, with added emphasis that "so far it’s drawing a decent amount of viewers (1.69 million, which beats the cable news competition)." On Thursday, she claimed that "Fox News’ ‘Comedy’ Show With Greg Gutfeld Keeps Repeating The Same Joke, And No One Understands Why." Not only is there no mention of the ratings in this piece, but she claims "It’s not going too well..." before giving it quite the backhanded compliment.
The Daily Beast naturally had to join in on the criticism. In Erin Gloria Ryan's piece, "Greg Gutfeld Proves, Yet Again, That Conservative Comedy’s Just Stuff Your Drunk Aunt Yells at a Wedding," published April 10, she makes zero reference to the show's ratings. And her piece over 1,500 words long. She, does, however write that "Gutfeld, like all who failed before..." and throughout the piece directly compares "Gutfeld!" to a failed show, "The ½ Hour News Hour." If that's not selective reporting, I don't know what is.
Gutfeld's interview with Ellefson, in another piece published by TheWrap, on Monday afternoon, exposes the above criticisms for what they are: unoriginal and lazy digs on conservatives. He offers "relief" for viewers alienated by the leftist late-night shows. "The other shows all do the same thing. You can pretty much can get what their point of view is on everything," Gutfeld said. "I always get the feeling that their targets of ridicule are groups of people that kind of represent most of America. So it’s kinda like instead of Trump, it’s making fun of Trump voters, etc."
Brad Slager's reporting for RedState pointed to how "Greg Gutfeld Muscles in on the Ratings of Late Night Talk Shows." He noted that for the week overall, "Gutfeld!" was the second highest-rated show among those programs.
He too pointed out how laughable the criticism of Gutfeld and his show was. "While the press mocked, Greg romped," he opened his piece with, in original italics.
Gutfeld is also a co-host of "The Five." He hosted "Red Eye" from 2007-2015, and "the Greg Gutfeld Show" from 2015-2021.
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