How Fox News (yes, Fox News) Bested ‘The Tonight Show‘
How Fox News (yes, Fox News) Bested ‘The Tonight Show’
A 38-year-old teacher who is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old pupil is the hero this country needs, the show’s host claimed one evening in May. The host is currently the most watched person on late-night television.
The broadcaster, Greg Gutfeld of Fox News, posed the question “Can we live in the real world?” before referencing the Van Halen song “Hot for Teacher.” “It wasn’t written about, ‘Hey, let’s have a responsible relationship with someone close to my age.'”
On the set of his show, “Gutfeld!” there were differing reactions after a regular, Kat Timpf, said she was “vehemently against banging kids.” Online judgements were made quickly.
The New Republic, one of about a dozen publications to sharply report Mr. Gutfeld’s actions on his political satire-like 11 p.m. hour, stated, “Fox News Is Now Praising Statutory Rape on Air.”
To the amazement and even dismay of many former coworkers and industry heavyweights, Mr. Gutfeld claims that his teacher bit and the reaction it sparked were a crucial component of the broader scheme that brought him to the late-night ratings apex. To their eyes, he has made a perplexing transition from Fox’s 3 a.m. time slot to a weekly platform where jokes about Hunter Biden’s addictions and women drivers draw more attention than “The Tonight Show.”
However, Mr. Gutfeld argued that the hesitant and frequently self-conscious view of late night held by the left is precisely why so few people anticipated him and why some people believed the teacher’s outburst was authentic.
In a 90-minute interview, he called such defences of the indefensible, within reason, “recreational beliefs,” whether or not he actually believed what he was saying or whether or not his audience of nearly two million people believed that he actually did.
“They fail when discussing events like 9/11 or Sandy Hook, for example. These are not idle beliefs, he continued. Recreational beliefs are non-harmful items that can start a discussion.
He grinned.
He said, “Taken out of context, you can think I’m crazy.”
Questions of intent and audience fluency—of what listeners are expected to comprehend about what is said on Fox’s air—have loomed over the network’s turbulent and damaging recent history, permeating its enormous Dominion settlement over fictitious election fraud claims and the ensuing departure of Tucker Carlson, its most well-liked anchor.However, officials at Fox have put their non-recreational faith in Mr. Gutfeld as the company plans its next chapter, elevating his merry trolling and just kidding, not really, but maybe possibly as an institutional voice for the following generation of viewers.
Mr Gutfeld, 58, will shift to 10 p.m. next month as part of a lineup change prompted by Mr Carlson’s firing in April, a move that is in line with his growing influence at the network. This week’s modifications made by Fox were the network’s first significant revamp of its primetime lineup since 2017. The time slot that Mr. Carlson currently holds at 8 p.m. will be taken over by Jesse Watters, while Mr. Gutfeld and Mr. Watters will continue to co-host “The Five” at 5 p.m., the most popular show on cable news.
Despite being much less critically acclaimed than Emmy-nominated competitors Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, Mr. Gutfeld consistently outperforms their Trump-dinging monologues and celebrity guest banter with scatological asides, cameos from a low-rent presidential impersonator, and a booking roster that can claim Larry Kudlow as the get of the night.
T.W. Shannon, a “Gutfeld!” guest and former Republican congressman in Oklahoma, stated, “We talk about Greg’s bowels way too much.” But there is a market for that as well.Mr. Gutfeld has helped the network gain (relatively) younger viewers; “The Five” and “Gutfeld!” consistently rank as two of the highest-rated cable news hours among those aged 25 to 54.
The most popular late-night host for a long time, Stephen Colbert, was routinely surpassed by Mr. Gutfeld last year.
Fox reports that while Mr. Colbert has frequently regained the top spot, Mr. Gutfeld and his non-guild team are now effectively the only game in town due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, which has led to a slight increase in audience. And I am for no options,” he recently jokingly said.
Mr. Gutfeld’s dramatic inversion is a hard-won success for the right after decades of cultural dominance by left-leaning late night, whose hosts mocked George W. Bush, riffed with Barack Obama, and shrank from Donald J. Trump.
For fans appalled at the country’s political course, Mr. Gutfeld has created a waggish haven akin to “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart at its Bush-era high.
Mr. Gutfeld, in contrast to Mr. Stewart, has never performed stand-up, does not identify as a comedian, and spent a large portion of his early career authoring odes to arrogant maleness in men’s magazines.
