Mediaite’s Winner and Loser of the Day
THE DAILY NEWSLETTER – FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2021
MEDIA WINNER: Greg Gutfeld
Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld has come a long way since he helmed the network’s panel show for insomniacs, Red Eye With Greg Gutfeld, which aired weekdays at 3 am ET. In addition to his role as one of the regular panelists on The Five, his late night talk show Gutfeld! is off to a roaring start since its launch back in April.
The ratings for Gutfeld! have repeatedly beaten even some of his broadcast competitors, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
This week, Gutfeld! hit an impressive milestone, surpassing all late night shows on both broadcast and cable, beating CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the first time. The show’s ratings for Tuesday averaged 2,120,000 viewers and 434,000 in the critical 25-54 year old demographic. Gutfeld! repeated the feat on Wednesday, averaging 2,017,000 viewers and 384,000 in the demo.
Critics, predominantly on the left, have had few nice things to say about Gutfeld! But the audience has spoken. Greg Gutfeld, at least for one week, is the ratings King of Late Night.
MEDIA LOSER: Mike Richards
This executive producer for Sony Pictures Television’s beloved trivia show Jeopardy! lost his gig hosting the show before it even began.
Who is Mike Richards?
Richards’ selection to take over the host’s podium after Alex Trebek passed away was immediately controversial. Why should an unknown corporate guy get selected over someone with a real connection to the show and its fans? And then reports emerged about discrimination lawsuits at Richards’ former gig with The Price is Right and derogatory comments he had made.
On Friday, Richards sent a memo to the Jeopardy! staff in which he said he would be stepping down as host because “moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show.”
Twitter predictably had a field day with the news, with Richards being brutally dragged by pretty much everyone, and speculation running rampant about who might get the gig now. “Happy Friday, y’all!” tweeted LeVar Burton, the former Reading Rainbow host and contender once again for the job.
