In a milestone for conservative media, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld just got some good news that experts didn’t see coming.
Gutfeld has emerged as the unexpected king of cable news ratings among younger audiences in the first quarter of 2024.
Gutfeld’s self-titled show “Gutfeld!” – a hybrid of late-night comedy and news panel discussion – averaged over 304,000 nightly viewers in the coveted 25-54 age demographic during the January-March period.
This marked the first time Gutfeld has led all cable news shows in the key demographic most prized by advertisers.
And he wasn’t the only Fox News star to top the viewer charts. Gutfeld’s co-host on “The Five”, Jesse Watters, landed second with 284,000 demo viewers, while three other Fox News primetime stalwarts – “The Five” itself, “Hannity”, and “The Ingraham Angle” – rounded out the top five rated shows on cable news.
The striking performance highlights Gutfeld’s unexpected appeal with younger television audiences, who are typically seen as more liberal-leaning and out of the reach of Fox News.
In fact, Gutfeld’s younger demographic dominance extended beyond cable news into the general television late night landscape.
Among the traditional network late night competition, Gutfeld bested liberal comedy mainstays like Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and the long-running “Daily Show” franchise in the 25-54 demo.
Only perennial heavyweights Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon managed to top Gutfeld by the coveted youth demographic metric, although he outpaced both in total viewership by averaging 2.2 million nightly.
Gutfeld did benefit from an earlier time slot simultaneously aired across the country. But his ability to connect with younger viewers on par with the former broadcast kings of late night represented a new frontier for right-leaning media personalities.
This youth viewer momentum came at a very good time for Gutfeld’s program. Jon Stewart’s highly-anticipated return to “The Daily Show” in February sparked an initial ratings renaissance before fizzling out by late March. Sewart’s March 26 episode garnered under 850,000 total viewers – less than half of Colbert and just a third of Gutfeld’s audience.
While Stewart’s struggles and Gutfeld’s late night demo lead doesn’t yet signal any major political realignment, it highlighted a notable tune-in factor for the Fox News firebrand’s irreverent — yet conservative program — in navigating today’s fragmented media landscape.
For Gutfeld and his network, the first quarter ratings coup marked an opportunity to consolidate their younger audience during the heart of the emerging 2024 presidential election cycle.
By defying convention in the late night comedy arena with a distinctly right-leaning lens, Fox News has managed to carve out rare new territory on the traditionally liberal-dominated terrain of comedic news commentary.
Whether that momentum endures likely depends on both the show’s ability to retain its broader novelty appeal and the potency of the Republican messaging it amplifies. But for at least one quarter, Greg Gutfeld’s unorthodox style made an unlikely primetime beachhead in connecting conservative humor and media criticism to a younger demographic that generally skews liberal.
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The Horn News editorial team