David Marchese

Why can't conservatives break through on late-night TV?

For years, that was an open cultural question.

The left had The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, not to mention other liberal-leaning hosts like David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel.

The right had no one.

That is, until Greg Gutfeld.

Formerly a health and men's magazine editor, Gutfeld joined Fox News in 2007 to host a later-than-late-night chat show called Red Eye.

Then he worked his way up the schedule until 2023, when his new show, called Gutfeld — it's got an exclamation mark at the end — moved to weekday nights at 10 on the East Coast and started dominating.

Its format is a little different from traditional host-driven late-night shows, because rather than chat with celebrity guests, Gutfeld presides over a roundtable of regular panelists, Kat Timpf and Tyrus chief among them.

The overall vibe is insult-heavy, defiantly anti-woke, and relentlessly pro-conservative.

It's a highly successful formula.

The show averages over 3 million viewers a night, numbers that dwarf its competitors.

But if Gutfeld, who also hosts Fox's daytime show The Five, can now credibly call himself the king of late night, his kingdom is in turmoil.

Earlier this year, CBS announced it was canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

And as you probably know, Jimmy Kimmel's show was briefly suspended after comments he made related to Charlie Kirk's murder.

Both decisions were viewed by many as politically motivated and also as possible threats to free speech.

This is coming at a time when questions about the future of late night, as well as censorship and comedy, are thick in the air.

All of which Gutfeldt, in highly provocative fashion, had plenty to say about.

Here's my conversation with Greg Gutfeldt.

Greg.

Yes.