Do you know who the current King of Late Night is?
Here's a hint: he's not named Jimmy or Stephen.
Meet Greg Gutfeld, the host of Fox News' satirical show Gutfeld!
To learn more about him, keep watching.
Viewers who watch Greg Gutfeld are well-aware that he's politically right-wing with a libertarian
flair.
However, he wasn't always a dyed-in-the-wool conservative.
Gutfeld recalled in a 2009 interview with Reason:
"As a teenager, I was a liberal."
As he recounted, Gutfeld eventually came to realize that he was a, quote, "complete fraud,"
particularly when he attended left-leaning Berkeley as an undergrad.
It was during his college years that his political views evolved, apparently driven by his individualist
nature.
Gutfeld told the outlet:
"I became a conservative by being around liberals and I became a libertarian by being around
conservatives.
You realize that there's something distinctly in common between the two groups, the left
and the right; the worst part of each of them is the moralizing."
Gutfeld fancies himself such a diehard libertarian that he even called out one of Hollywood's
most famous self-professed libertarians: comedian Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time.
Gutfeld declared to Reason:
"Bill Maher is not a libertarian.
He's not even close.
He's a P.C. liberal."
As for his feelings about Maher himself, Gutfeld was characteristically blunt, saying:
"I hate that guy."
After graduating college, Greg Gutfeld began a career in magazine journalism, starting
off with the conservative journal The American Spectator.
As a profile in Reason pointed out, an unsuccessful attempt at screenwriting led Gutfeld to pursue
further magazine work, including serving as editor of Men's Health, Stuff, and Maxim's
British edition.
While racy men's magazines Stuff and Maxim proved to be a good fit for his irreverent
point of view, even Gutfeld had to admit that being editor of Men's Health wasn't a particularly
good fit.
During his tenure at the publication, Gutfeld wrote an article titled "I Smoke and I Work
at Men's Health," which apparently wasn't well received.
Gutfeld told Reason:
"I was the only editor of any health magazine that did a feature on how smoking is good
for you.
[...] It was a fantastic article, and it dropped like a stone in journalism.
People just hated it."
Gutfeld's tenure in the magazine business was characterized by his frequent firings,
and it can best be illustrated by a stunt he pulled at a 2003 seminar for the American
Society of Magazine Editors.
As The New York Times reported, he hired three dwarfs to crash the event, and they loudly
took calls on their cell phones while munching on potato chips, until being thrown out.
Gutfeld explained:
”I love the idea of showing up at a place and just disrupting it."
After his checkered career in print journalism, in 2007, Gutfeld migrated to television.
His first stop: Fox News, where he was given a wee-hours time slot for a new insomniacs-only
show dubbed Red Eye.
At the time, Gutfeld spoke to Observer about the impression he was trying to get across
to the network's viewers:
"It's somewhat similar to somebody who's lost his mind.
Because I'm a complete maniac.
You may disagree with me, but you can't stop watching [...] I don't even think you have
to like the show to get sucked in."
According to Gutfeld, Red Eye capitalized on what he perceived to be his biggest strength
of being a magazine editor.
As he recalled during his interview with Observer,
"The best part of the day was when I would just stand there and yell at everybody.
That's the only thing I know how to do well: stand and yell at people."
The Atlantic noted that by 2009, Red Eye was topping all other cable news channels in the
ratings in its time slot.
However, the magazine also placed that ratings success in context by pointing out that the
competition at such a ridiculously late hour was primarily infomercials.
"Turn it on and you set it and forget it."
Gutfeld left Red Eye in 2015 and the show was ultimately canceled in 2017.
During his years on Red Eye, Greg Gutfeld's tendency to make outrageous, attention-hunting
statements generated controversy — sometimes more than he'd expected.
That was the case with an episode in which he mocked Canada's military role in Afghanistan.
As CBC News reported, Gutfeld was discussing a recent announcement that the Canadian military
could require a year of recovery time after the country ended its military presence in
Afghanistan.
Gutfeld quipped,
"Meaning, the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes,
run on the beach in gorgeous white Capri pants."
Gutfeld's joke upset the Canadians, who responded with outraged backlash — particularly from
Peter MacKay, a Canadian Defense Minister at the time, who slammed Gutfeld's remarks
as "crass" and "insensitive."
MacKay then demanded an apology.
Gutfeld subsequently did offer an apology, reported CBC News, insisting,
"[My joke] was in no way an attempt to make light of troop efforts.
However, I realize that my words may have been misunderstood.
It was not my intent to disrespect the brave men, women and families of the Canadian military,
and for that I apologize."
In addition to his work on television and magazines, Greg Gutfeld is also the author
of several books.
His first literary effort was a memoir chronicling his experience as an American living in London
after he was hired to be editor of the U.K.'s Maxim magazine.
Published by Simon & Schuster, the book was titled Lessons from the Land of Pork Scratchings:
A Miserable Yank Finds Happiness in the UK.
Gutfeld has written two other books for Simon & Schuster, The Plus, which is described as
a self-help book for people who hate self-help, and The Gutfeld Monologues, a collection of
some of his more choice on-air rants from Fox News' The Five.
Then there's his how-to book, The Bible of Unspeakable Truths, published by Grand Central
Publishing.
Gutfeld also wrote three books for Penguin Random House: Not Cool, How to Be Right, and
The Joy of Hate.
Greg Gutfeld has not been shy about expressing his views on so-called "cancel culture."
During a conversation with Outkick, he got real about how social media has become something
of a minefield, simply by virtue of allowing everybody a platform upon which to share stupid
thoughts that could later come back to bite them.
Gutfeld told the outlet:
"I basically use Twitter just to retweet stuff that I find interesting or to promote stuff.
[...] I used to [...] send out a tweet and see what kind of response it'd get.
[...] But then I realized, 'Why am I doing something for free that could get me into
trouble?'
That wasn't smart, so I stopped."
Gutfeld made headlines — unintentionally, for a change — during a March 2021 edition
of The Five, thanks to an unscripted open-mic moment.
While co-host Juan Williams launched into an introduction, Gutfeld — apparently unaware
that his microphone was live and he was on the air — began singing a little ditty with
some TMI lyrics.
"I gotta pee, I gotta peeeeee."
Co-host Jesse Watters then proceeded to tell Gutfeld he was still on the air.
Gutfeld, however, was apparently not receiving audio through his earpiece.
Watters laughed and told viewers he'd take over for Gutfeld during the segment until
he came back from the bathroom.
Shortly after, Gutfeld addressed his ode to urination by confirming that he was unable
to hear anything that his co-hosts or the producers were telling him.
"For some reason, I got unplugged."
He later joked about the incident on social media to answer the question on everyone's
minds, tweeting, quote, "Yes I peed."
When Greg Gutfeld exited Fox News' Red Eye, it was to pursue a bigger opportunity with
the network.
That was when he began hosting his own hour-long weekend show that would take him from a middle-of-the-night
time slot into primetime.
According to a Fox News statement obtained by Variety, the show was intended to be satirical
in nature, and would focus on:
"[Greg Gutfeld's] strong libertarian values and social commentary."
Bill Shine, who was Fox News' programming chief at the time, was bullish on Gutfeld's
future with the network.
Shine said in a statement:
"We are confident that Gutfeld's distinct perspective and knack for humor will start
a valuable dialogue and be a refreshing addition to the weekend lineup."
As Gutfeld admitted in an interview with the Daily Beast, shifting from late-late night
to primetime did require making some adjustments to his on-air schtick.
Toning down the wackiness, he explained, was a necessity in order to attract a wider audience
for what he described as:
"[A] news-slash-talk-slash-variety show [with] weird little pockets of absurdity."
In April 2021, Deadline reported that Fox News was giving Greg Gutfeld the shot he'd
been preparing for, announcing he'd host a five-nights-a-week late-night version of his
show, airing in the 11 p.m. time slot and dubbed Gutfeld!
The host told Outkick,
"We are going to try a lot of new things on the show.
Maybe some will seem somewhat like Red Eye, maybe not.
[...] The great thing about the five-day-a-week frequency is that you get to experiment with
it.
We are going to make mistakes and see how it goes."
According to Deadline, Fox News went all in by promoting the show on a billboard in a
high-profile location on Hollywood Boulevard.
However, reviews were scathing.
Variety blasted the show's tone of, quote, "acrid nihilism," while USA Today chided Gutfeld!
for, quote, "rehashing Fox talking points," which aren't typically known for their hilarity.
Meanwhile, The New Republic held nothing back by describing Gutfeld! as:
"[T]he worst late-night comedy show in television history [and] the latest evidence that conservatives
have no sense of humor."
Those reviews, however, did nothing to scare away viewers.
By August, The Wrap reported that Gutfeld! racked up monster ratings, managing to beat
the other late-night fare — including Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show, Stephen Colbert's
The Late Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! — both in total viewership and the advertiser-coveted
age demographic of 25 to 54.
"Your ratings are fabulous.
I just saw you're now the King of Late Night."
In addition to Gutfeld's TV work on Fox News, his various books, and his weekly podcast,
"The One w/ Greg Gutfeld," the host took his act on the road.
According to Gutfeld's website, he has graced fans with his presence via "Gutfeld Live."
Given Gutfeld's busy schedule and the demands of hosting a weeknight talk show, it's not
too surprising that these live shows have been sporadic and infrequent.
Gutfeld scheduled one gig per month in October, November, and December 2021, in locales ranging
from Newark, New Jersey, to the Soundstage at Graceland, adjacent to the mansion that
Elvis Presley once called home.
So what have viewers seen at performances of "Gutfeld Live?"
According to Gutfeld's site, the show is a somewhat low-key affair, with Gutfeld joined
by comedian Tom Shillue, for what's billed as:
"[A]n unforgettable evening of hilarious, insightful and engaging conversation on topics
from his New York Times Best Seller 'The Plus' and other headline-grabbing topics of the
day."
Interviewed by Cleveland.com, Gutfeld offered his own hyperbolic assessment of his live
act, describing the show as:
"[T]he best two hours of entertainment you will ever experience, in your entire life,
forever and ever."
With all those irons in the fire, it's easy to assume that Greg Gutfeld has made a pretty
penny over the course of his career — and that assumption is not incorrect.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Gutfeld is sitting atop a $13 million fortune, with
his annual salary pegged at $7 million per year.
While Celebrity Net Worth doesn't specify what that salary encompasses, in 2021, the
Daily Beast reported Gutfeld's Fox News salary was "rumored" to be $4 million per year, a
number that may well grow larger if his late-night show holds onto all those viewers by the next
time his contract comes up for negotiation.
Despite his success on television, Gutfeld never actually envisioned his hosting path
when he first launched his career, teling Outkick:
"I never saw myself like this, what I'm doing now.
I just saw myself as a writer and an editor.
A packager person.
Someone for magazines and stuff like that.
I was never a comedian.
I never went on stage, so I never could call myself one."
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