For the past two years, Fox News has been spinning a story — one that its loyal audience is eager to believe, and one that many in the media have lazily repeated. The story goes like this: Greg Gutfeld, the irreverent Fox personality and self-described comedian, has conquered late night. He’s outdrawing Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel — the very icons of the genre. Depending on which chyron you’ve seen flash across Fox News, you might even think Gutfeld has single-handedly toppled the entire late-night establishment.

It’s a tidy narrative. It flatters Fox, it thrills Gutfeld’s fans, and it fuels the culture wars that have long defined the network’s brand. But there’s just one problem: it isn’t true.

The Fallon Appearance That Sparked the Debate

The illusion flared back into public view recently when Gutfeld appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. For some, it was galling to watch Fallon welcome a far-right ideologue onto his couch without so much as a pushback against Gutfeld’s history of inflammatory remarks. For others, it was simply surreal: Why was one of America’s most mainstream late-night hosts legitimizing a man who claims to have dethroned him?

The headlines that followed, though, revealed a deeper irritation. Media outlets, even those not sympathetic to Fox, framed the Fallon–Gutfeld encounter as a clash of late-night titans. They treated Gutfeld as if he were part of the same competitive universe as Fallon, Colbert, and Kimmel. But he isn’t — not even close.

What Counts as “Late Night”?

To understand why, you need to understand how television itself defines “late night.” It’s not just about tone, format, or whether a host cracks jokes in front of an audience. In the TV business, late night is defined by when prime time ends. According to Nielsen, the authority on ratings, prime time stops at 11 p.m. Eastern (10 p.m. Central). Late night begins after that — when the audience shrinks, the demographics shift, and the advertising landscape changes.

By that crucial standard, Gutfeld! does not qualify. Since July 2023, the show has aired at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. That’s prime time, one of the most-watched hours of the television day. So while Colbert and Fallon are competing for a smaller, post-prime audience, Gutfeld is surfing a much larger wave of available viewers.

That alone disqualifies him from being a true contender in the “late-night wars.” And yet Fox continues to frame him as if he were.

Why the Numbers Look So Good

Here’s the part that complicates things: Gutfeld! really is a hit. In the second quarter of 2025, it averaged around 3 million viewers — more than doubling or tripling the audience of CNN programs and regularly outdrawing nearly everything on MSNBC except The Rachel Maddow Show. On some nights, it even improved upon Hannity, its lead-in — a rare feat on a network where Sean Hannity is practically a ratings fortress.

And yes, those numbers often exceed Colbert, Kimmel, and Fallon. But context matters. Gutfeld benefits from the sheer volume of prime-time eyeballs, especially on the West Coast, where his show airs at 7 p.m. That’s dinner time, family time, Wheel of Fortune time — in other words, one of the most heavily watched blocks of the day. Comparing his audience to that of Fallon’s 11:35 p.m. broadcast is like comparing apples to, well, slightly bruised midnight pears.

Nobody compares Dateline at 10 p.m. on Fridays to Fallon or Seth Meyers. Nobody pits the Today Show against the NBC Nightly News, even though both are news programs. Different hours mean different audiences — and different rules.

The Ghost of “Red Eye”

Part of the confusion stems from Gutfeld’s past. When he hosted Red Eye at 3 a.m. Eastern, he was very much in the late-night world — albeit in the graveyard slot. Even his later Saturday-night experiment, The Greg Gutfeld Show, had an 11 p.m. start that, at least in the East, put it within reach of the genre.

So when Fox rebranded the program as Gutfeld! in 2021, it made a kind of sense to frame it as a late-night contender. For two years, Gutfeld could plausibly play the role of underdog scrapper, sticking it to the establishment from the same time slot. But once the show moved to 10 p.m. in 2023, the illusion should have ended. Instead, Fox doubled down on the myth.

Why the Illusion Persists

Why cling to the narrative? The answer is simple: politics. Positioning Gutfeld as the king of late night gives Fox a symbolic victory in the culture wars. It suggests that conservative comedy — long mocked as a contradiction in terms — has finally triumphed over the liberal stranglehold on the genre.

It’s also branding gold. Every network loves to call its shows “#1,” but Fox has turned it into an art form. By labeling Gutfeld a late-night winner, they get another crown jewel to add to their arsenal of superlatives. And Gutfeld himself, ever eager to needle his critics, relishes the chance to present himself as the outlaw comic who beat the system.

A Prime-Time Player in Late-Night Drag

Strip away the spin, and the reality is plain: Greg Gutfeld is not a late-night host. He’s a prime-time personality, competing not with Colbert and Fallon but with the likes of scripted dramas, true-crime mysteries, and other cable news offerings. And in that realm, his success is undeniable.

But pretending otherwise does a disservice — not just to the shows he’s unfairly compared to, but to the very idea of how television is measured and judged. Late night and prime time are different arenas with different stakes. To pretend otherwise is to play along with a marketing illusion.

The Bottom Line

Greg Gutfeld doesn’t need the late-night crown. He already has what most TV hosts dream of: a loyal audience, enviable ratings, and a format that lets him riff nightly on politics and culture without apology. That should be enough.

Yet in an age where perception is power, Fox prefers the myth. And so Gutfeld will go on strutting as the “king of late night,” even as his throne is planted firmly in prime time.

The real question is: how long will the rest of the media keep playing along?