Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld Are Dominating Cable

Fox News' Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld

Jesse Watters dominates his time slot on Fox, where he has the most-watched program in all of cable at 7 pm ET in both total viewers as well as the younger A25-54 demo, reports Forbes. In terms of the former, Jesse Watters Primetime is averaging 3.1 million viewers, and 517,000 in A25-54 (more than CNN and MSNBC combined).

Watters’ ratings leadership was one of the standout data points in Fox News’ overall first quarter ratings performance, a period in which the cable news network was the only one to make year-over-year ratings gains. The three-month period that kicked off 2022, which saw CNN and MSNBC continuing to experience ratings declines, also saw Fox notch its 81st consecutive quarter as the most-watched network in all of basic cable.

Part of that is attributable to an experiment on Fox’s part that has paid off well: Giving new programming slots to both Watters, as well as The Five’s Greg Gutfeld (whose show Gutfeld! will hit its one-year mark on Tuesday, April 5).

Like Watters’, Gutfeld’s is also the highest-rated program in all of cable news on the basis of total views during its hour, at 11 pm ET. Gutfeld!, featuring the veteran Fox host’s signature brand of acerbic humor, is also noteworthy for the way it quickly shook up the late-night landscape upon its debut. While the content of both of these programs — Fox’s two newest weekday shows — leans heavily on conservative-friendly political commentary, Gutfeld’s is a bit lighter, with more of the banter and shtick associated with late-night TV.

And, more importantly, Gutfeld! found a void in the market. Because since its launch in April 2021, the show has averaged almost 2 million viewers and 347,000 in the younger demo. The program soon found itself the second highest-rated in late-night, routinely topping ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Data from Nielsen MRI Fusion also shows that the audience for Gutfeld! is more ideologically diverse — comprising more Democrats, Republicans, and self-styled independents — than any CNN program.

The other factor behind the success thus far of both Gutfeld’s and Watters’ shows, meanwhile, has to do with the fact that Fox News Channel not only gave them a time slot of their own — but one wherein they can do the thing which viewers know them best for and clearly want to see more of. For Watters, in other words, it’s political commentary. Gutfeld’s audience, meanwhile, expects humor, and so the host during his late-night slot is there to be comparatively more entertaining than Watters’ commentary-driven show.