Jay Weber Show transcript 8-17-22
Greg Gutfeld and his late-night show on -Fox cable- is now beating all the network shows, including Stephen Colbert.
Colbert was the last ‘network’ hotshot that Gutfeld had to beat out to be the king of late night-
He had left Fallon and Kimmel in the dust long ago.Other cable offerings like Samantha Bee and Conan were never rivals-given how pathetic their ratings were-
And so-with Gutfeld logging his highest rated week ever-last week- he’s now beating all the other -network-late night hosts.
Remember when it used to be a big deal whether a show was on one of the big ‘networks’ or whether it was just on a single cable TV station?
That’s not really such a big deal, anymore.
And when it comes to late nights and this shift that puts Gutfeld on top – as much as I like Greg Gutfeld- this is ‘mostly’ about the steep, steep erosion of the once-huge network ratings.
There are simply so many other options to capture our attention or our time.
When Johnny Carson was already on the downslide in the 1990s, he’d average about six million viewers each night. If he had a marquee guest or a special event, maybe nine million.
Compare that to Jimmy Kimmel who only gets about 1.3 million viewers each night, on average. Kimmel isn’t nearly the draw, or the cultural icon, that johnny was. Nor is the ‘tonight show’ the appointment viewing or the cultural influence that it once was.
Still. For a network show with as much advertising and promotion as Kimmel gets- 1.3-million viewers each night is pathetic.Out of these four.... Jimmy Fallon is particularly sucky. And from what I’ve seen, he’s got nothing new or interesting on the show. It’s the same tired bits and games each night...and he’s an awful interviewer.
Jimmy Kimmel on ABC gets far-far- less promotion than Fallon does, and he’s getting about 1.1 million viewers each night. Colbert is the tops of the network shows, bringing in about 2 million.
Again-that’s half of what Carson did in his final-worst-year...back in 1992.Consider that: when NBC execs thought Carson was ‘done’. Dead. It’s time to replace him. He had more than double the nightly viewers than Colbert does now, and todays’ execs want to claim Colbert’s show is hot. The most watched.
Well- not as of last week. Last week, Greg Gutfeld, whose viewership has been building as the others have been falling...hit 2.4-million viewers per night.
Again- a fraction of what late night audiences used to be-but his show is the only one of these shows that is growing or showing any profits or promise for its network.
And get this- Gutfeld’s audience isn’t old, stodgy fox viewers:
Gutfeld!also led among younger viewers, dominating among adults 25-54, the key demographic valued by national advertisers. The Fox News show delivered an average audience of 397,000 viewers, followed by CBS’ Colbert (373,000 viewers), NBC’s Fallon (372,000 viewers) and ABC’s Kimmel (264,000 viewers)
I haven’t watched Gutfeld’s show, but clearly there is something different going on there. Something more compelling and interesting, than is going on these other shows. Especially if it is bringing in younger viewers like this.
And when it comes to the younger audience- we might be seeing a trend developing that the left-wing executives who run Hollywood and New York don’t want to acknowledge.
And is say-might be-because it’s still an early trend...
But....the youngest voters...the so-called ‘gen z’ voters are telling pollsters that they are more moderate and conservative- than liberal- right out of the gates, here.
Most young people come out of high school or college all young and idealistic and spend years dabbling in liberalism or Marxism..and it takes a decade or more for them to realize the ‘wrongness’ of leftist politics... And so, many of them only convert to being conservative or more moderate later in life...
Well, with these gen z kids, a higher percentage of them are starting life as independent young adults, and labeling themselves conservatives, or libertarians.
It’s a trend the pollsters have been seeing for a little while now.
And so, could the shift in younger viewers over to Gutfeld-and away from the nightly diet of leftism that Colbert, Kimmel, and Fallon offer-be a reflection of this?
Here’s another bit if potential evidence: we, here on WISN, have been doing better with younger and younger listeners, recently, and during this last book-WISN-was the top radio station among all demographics- the so-called 6-plus demo.
That signifies six-year-old and older-which is an idiotic measurement but, it captures the 18 to 25 demo that-historically- talk radio and stations like WISN didn’t do so well with.
But, for some reason, we’re having even those younger and younger listeners tuning in. It’s not just dad or grandpa’s radio station, anymore.
And i don’t know if this is a larger ‘talk radio’ trend.... or whether this is a lasting trend...
But it would stand to reason that-if a larger chunk of today’s young people is coming right out of the box-as more fiscally and socially conservative people...than previous generations...
It would stand to reason that we would see it reflected in the ratings and consumer profiles of stations like Fox News and WISN.
Folks, Gutfeld leading Kimmel, Colbert, etc... with young people?That’s an interesting trend.Their shows are a nightly dose of liberalism. Gutfeld’s show is a nightly dose of conservatism. And look which one is winning out- even with the younger demographics, now.
So that’s something to watch. These left-wing network execs still want to insist that their late-night shows are ‘going great’, and they’re not.
photo credit: Fox News
story credit: Forbes
