Gutfeld Once Again Proves He’s the True King of Late Night By Boosting Jimmy Fallon’s Ratings, Too

It wasn’t fun to watch Greg Gutfeld on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Unfortunately, it was better television than the segment before Gutfeld, which featured the barely animated Jonas Brothers trudging through a bit of terrible interviewing from Fallon. What was most unfortunate is that compared to Fallon, Gutfeld was a television livewire, bursting with energy. It was a dramatic contrast to Fallon, who felt flat in comparison.  

Fallon received criticism (including from me) for choosing to have Gutfeld, the host of Fox News’ hit late-night show Gutfeld!, on The Tonight Show. It felt like a second act of ruffling Trump’s hair, an attempt to humanize and further legitimize the right wing. Even though the pair stayed clear of politics, there was a clear political message The Tonight Show was sending out: We might make fun of Trump, but we’re not above courting his voters to boost ratings. 

And boost ratings it did; According to reporting from LateNighter, Thursday’s episode with Gutfeld drew in 1.71 million viewers. That’s the highest ratings Fallon’s gotten for a regular episode (not counting episodes after major sporting events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics) since December 2023. And for that December 19, 2023 episode, Fallon aired immediately after the finale of The Voice. The Gutfeld interview was also the most viewed clip from The Tonight Show on YouTube, with more than 900,000 views and more than doubling the second most viewed clip. 

The top rated comment on the YouTube clip was: “Fallon is working overtime to not get cancelled like Colbert.” 

So, did it work? 

Even with the Gutfeld-sponsored bump in viewership, Fallon is still falling short of his peers in the same time slot. The other 11:35 p.m. show, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, brought in 2.1 million viewers. 

That same night, before Fallon aired, Gutfeld! aired at 10 p.m. He blew both Colbert and Fallon out of the water, with 2.69 million viewers. Maybe it’s the time slot. Maybe it’s the only major network late-night show to cater to the American right. Maybe it’s the 30-minute format, small staff and overall lower production costs. Maybe it’s the fact that compared to Fallon, Gutfeld has the presence of the Energizer Bunny on speed. 

What’s important is that Fallon and NBC took a gamble on Gutfeld guesting on the show and it paid off. The interview itself was entirely boring, but the show got a ratings bump that might help keep the show on air. If I were Fallon though, I’d be worried that executives aren’t just looking for more right-friendly guests. They might be looking for a more right-friendly host, too.