JUST IN: Greg Gutfeld Moves to Weekday Nights on Fox News, Pushing Back a News Hour
Fox News is replacing its 11 p.m. news show, Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream, with Greg Gutfeld, whose eponymous program currently airs on Saturdays, the network announced Wednesday.
Starting in the second quarter of 2021, Gutfeld will expand to air weeknights at 11:00 p.m.
Fox News at Night will move to 12 a.m.
With the move, Fox — which announced a major schedule revamp in January — will have 21 hours of live programming per weekday.
“People need a reason to laugh,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement. “Greg’s unique and irreverent talk show has been an incredible success, often beating the late night broadcast competition, despite its Saturday timeslot. With one of the most loyal and engaged audiences in cable news, we’re thrilled to bring the show to weekday primetime and further solidify Greg’s place among late night television stars.”
The move is the second time this year Fox has relegated a straight news show in favor of opinion. In January, The Story with Martha MacCallum was moved from its 7 p.m. slot to 3 p.m., and was replaced by Fox News Primetime, which so far has been hosted by a rotating cast of high-profile opinion personalities, including Brian Kilmeade, Maria Bartiromo, and former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).
Reaction inside the network is mixed. “It’s yet another descent into outright propaganda coverage fueled by the constant right-wing grievance machine that undergirds Fox,” said one Fox insider, while another chalked the move up to giving the Fox audience more of what it wants.
In a statement, Gutfeld said, “This feels like the perfect next step following the amazing success of the weekend show, which is due in large part to a great staff and a management that lets the show follow its own unique”
“Every day someone comes up to me to ask when are we going nightly, so now that we are, there will be approximately 3 million people who will claim it’s their idea!” he added.
According to Nielsen data, Gutfeld was the weekend’s most-watched show in cable news in the highly coveted demographic of viewers age 25-54. Since launching in 2015, Gutfeld has had some ratings wins over late-night broadcast shows Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, and NBC’s The Tonight Show, and 2020 was the show’s highest rated year on record.
Gutfeld will continue to host The Five, one of Fox’s highest-rated shows. Fox did not immediately announce a replacement for Gutfeld’s Saturday night show.
Marisa Sarnoff was a researcher at Fox News from 2015-2020.
