CHARADES: The program airs at 7 p.m.!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2025

At Variety, that's now called "late night:" In fairness, Variety's Tatiana Sigel isn't a political journalist.

That isn't what she is! For the record, Variety describes itself as "the most authoritative and trusted source of entertainment business news, recognized and respected throughout the world." 

According to Variety, Variety's journalism seems to be stunningly good. As for Siegel herself, this is the way Variety describes her role at the org:

Tatiana Siegel

Tatiana Siegel is Executive Editor Film & Media at Variety, where she covers the business of the entertainment industry, ranging from deeply reported investigative pieces to incisive cover profiles...

In 2019, she was named print journalist of the year at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards for work that included an abuse-of-power bombshell that led to Warner Bros. chief Kevin Tsujihara resigning. She has written nearly 100 cover stories for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard that span both people (Mick Jagger, Drake and Scarlett Johansson) and scandals (the Sony hack and the career implosion of NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell). 

The profile continues from there. To peruse the full profile, click here.

Tatiana Siegel isn't a political writer. That said, she's a ranking, highly experienced journalist at a well-known publication.

In the current edition of Variety, Siegel offers a profile of someone she may believe to be part of "the entertainment industry." It's the type of profile which would normally be described as a puff piece. 

Her profile concerns the Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld and his rather peculiar Gutfeld! program. Headline included, Siegel's lengthy puff piece starts as shown, with no paywall to hold you at bay:

How Greg Gutfeld Became the Bill Maher of Fox News—And Toppled Fallon and Colbert in the Ratings

On a Tuesday in February, Hollywood is in the throes of a “Bonfire of the Vanities” moment. Karla Sofía Gascón’s old social media posts, with shocking takes on George Floyd (“a drug addict swindler”) and Islam (“an infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured”), are roiling awards season and have turned the actress into a pariah. But the “Emilia Pérez” star, the first openly trans person nominated for an acting Oscar, is also a tricky subject to satirize.

Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have ignored the conflagration that has engulfed this year’s standard-bearing #Resistance film. The task is left to Greg Gutfeld, whose eponymous Fox News show has made him the most-watched man in late night.

That's the way the profile begins at this "most authoritative and trusted source of entertainment business news." 

The profile starts by comparing Gutfeld to three men who are generally thought of as "late night comedians." It then declares that Gutfeld—in this case, the person, not the program—is "the most-watched man in late night."

It's a very familiar claim—a claim which is endlessly pushed by Gutfeld himself. 

At his own official site, Gutfeld describes himself as "the king of late night." Indeed, that was the title of the collection of essays he published in 2023.

According to Siegel, Gutfeld is "the most-watched man" in late night. It's a familiar type of claim, especially at the start of a major puff piece. But coming right at the start of her profile, is the claim actually true?

For ourselves, we'd be inclined to say that it pretty much isn't. As a basic point of logic, to be "the most-watched man in late night," a person would pretty much have to be the host of a TV show which actually airs in late night.

Gutfeld's program doesn't. Much later in her profile, the former print journalist of the year offers a sad and journalistically silly bit of instruction:

What is indisputable is [Gutfeld's] ratings prowess. The former print journalist...helms the only late-night program that averages more than 3 million viewers, according to the most recent Nielsen Media Research data....His critics say his numbers should come with an asterisk because he benefits from the earlier start time of 10 p.m., and that it airs even earlier on the West Coast. But in August 2022, he became the first late-night host to overtake Colbert in the ratings since 2017, and he accomplished that feat when “Gutfeld!” aired at 11 p.m. Like it or not, the nasal-voiced shit-stirrer who sees no topic as off-limits is leading the pack—and expanding his audience.

Interesting! According to that, Gutfeld is "leading the pack" when compared to other "late-night hosts."

For the record, there is no doubt that the Gutfeld! program boasts strong viewership numbers, as does every primetime program on the Fox News Channel. But is the fellow who was willing to give the program his name really a "late-night host?" 

Is Gutfeld really a late-night host? Sadly, the journalist leaves it to "Gutfeld's critics" to raise this obvious point:

His critics say his numbers should come with an asterisk because he benefits from the earlier start time of 10 p.m., and that it airs even earlier on the West Coast. 

Gutfeld's critics tell us that? Why wouldn't an experienced journalist at an "authoritative source of news" be stating that blindingly obvious point in her own journalistic voice, then moving on from there? 

In truth, Siegel's puffery is nowhere dumber than in that fuzzy passage. Consider what readers are (and aren't) told in that mumble-mouthed presentation:

The Gutfeld! program starts at 10 p.m., Siegel says. (She's referring to Eastern time, without specifically stating that point.) That said, the program "airs even earlier on the West Coast," the scribe then murkily says.

In fact, the program airs three hours earlier than 10 p.m. out there in Tinseltown, the village Siegel calls home. Because Gutfeld! airs simultaneously all across the fruited plain, it actually airs at 7 p.m. all through the Pacific Time Zone!

Also, the program airs at 9 p.m. in Chicago and at 8 p.m. in Denver. Whatever its merits and its ratings successes may be, Gutfeld! isn't a "late night" program, if we're all still speaking the English language, Sam Ervin's native tongue.

Citizens, please! By tradition, a program airing at 7 p.m. isn't a "late night" program. Indeed, a program airing at 7 p.m. isn't even a prime time program, though the boundaries of prime time have been changing in recent years within the realm of "cable news."

Gutfeld! airs at 7 p.m. all up and down the west coast! Does this mean that it "benefits from an earlier start time" as compared to the nation's traditional "late night" comedy shows, which air at 11:35 p.m. Eastern? 

Few claims could seem more obvious. Indeed, if we're all still speaking English, Gutfeld! isn't a "late night" show at all. 

While we're at it, is Gutfeld! really a "comedy show," as Siegel suggests all through her authoritative profile? For ourselves, we'd also say "no" to that implied claim. It's a very important point—an important point which we'll discuss as the week proceeds.

Briefly, let's be fair. Compared with other prime time shows on other "cable news" channels, Gutfeld! does have a very large viewership—of that there can be no doubt. 

To execute the most obvious comparison, Gutfeld! blows away the viewership numbers on the 10 p.m. Eastern programs on CNN and MSNBC, its most obvious competitors. 

Meanwhile, consider the way the numbers work for the shows with which Siegel, puffing hard, agree to perform a comparison:

Average viewers, final quarter, 2024:
Gutfeld! (Fox News Channel): 3.18 million
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC): 1.96 million
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS): 2.59 million
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC): 1.32 million

Those numbers come from this report by Jed Rosenzweig at LateNighter. 

With respect to Gutfeld's show, Rosenzweig was sufficiently straightforward to note this obvious point:

Here Are Final Late Night Ratings for Q4 2024

[...]

Moving over to the cable side of the dial, Gutfeld! scored its highest ratings in the program’s history, up nearly +9% in total viewers vs an already record-breaking Q3. Greg Gutfeld‘s average audience now exceeds the top-rated network late-night shows by half a million viewers, although he benefits from an earlier airtime when more people are watching TV across the board (10pm ET/7pm PT).

It's an obvious point, and Rosenzweig was willing to state it in his own voice. He didn't pretend it was some sort of debatable claim muttered by "Gutfeld's critics."

Once again, let's be clear:

Gutfeld!, which isn't a late night show, does in fact attract more viewers than any of the traditional late night comedy shows aired by the three major networks. But please note:

Those other programs start at 11:35 Eastern—and they air in late time slots all across the nation. Even so, the Big Three programs, as a group, attract roughly twice as many total viewers as Gutfeld's earlier program does. 

Gutfeld! does, in fact, do very well in the "cable news" rating wars. But its viewership is roughly doubled by the trio of actual "late night" comedy shows which go on the air much later—which go on the air more than four hours later out there on the coast.

Does any of this foolishness matter? Only if life on this planet actually matters—and it isn't clear that human life really does matter within the wide array of journalistic charades currently being performed by our failing nation's wide assortment of authoritative journalists.

All in all, Tatiana Siegel was puffing hard as she profiled the Fox News Channel's ascendant "shit-stirrer." In an assortment of ways, her work was what we'd call an "imitation of life"—a parody of competent journalism, a dangerous type of charade.

No, Virginia! If we're still speaking conventional English, Gutfeld! isn't a late night show. That leads us toward our second question:

Is Gutfeld! a comedy dhow?

Plainly, that's the impression a reader might take from Siegel's pastiche of puffery. But if we were asked to shorthand Gutfeld's show, we would offer a different assortment of descriptions:

We'd call it a propaganda show—a propaganda show which airs on an imitation of a "cable news" channel. We'd be inclined to call the Gutfeld! program a destructive imitation of life—a charade in and of itself.

Siegel is silent about the matters we have in mind. That said, a wide array of journalistic silences surround the ongoing operations of the Fox News Channel. 

That's true at an "entertainment" publication like Variety, but also at weightier sites such as the New York Times. (To read the Times' mush-mouthed profile of Gutfeld from 2023, you can just click here.)

As our nation slides toward the sea, can anyone here play this game? Is anyone willing to try? 

We'll be exploring those questions all week with respect to the Gutfeld! program. For ourselves, we regard the (nightly, prime time) Gutfeld! show as an exercise in moral and intellectual squalor. 

We regard it as an imitation of life—as an imitation of adult human behavior. We regard it as a charade, like a great deal of our flailing nation's modern high-end journalism.

Alas! Our journalists lack a pre-existing, established language for describing programs like Gutfeld! Deprived of that linguistic road map, Siegel resorted to familiar puffery in the poverty of the time.

Tomorrow: Siegel is able to spot "misogyny"—but only from Howard Stern!