Although comedian Jon Stewart returned to Comedy Central, the Nielsen ratings in the weeks following his return did not reflect the initial media frenzy.
In fact, according to a recent press release from Fox News, since Stewart's return to the network on February 12, his show has been left in the dust by Fox News' late-night talk show, “Gutfeld!”, which he hosted Longtime comedian and actor. Time Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
Although Stewart's numbers on “The Daily Show” are nothing to take lightly, Nislen's ratings released Monday showed that Gutfeld's show outperformed Stewart's by almost every measure.
In the four weeks following his return to “The Daily Show,” Stewart was losing ground in the ratings. In the week of February 28 to March 3, it attracted a total audience of 545,000 viewers, of which 174,000 belonged to the 25-54 age group.
By contrast, Gutfeld's show attracted a whopping 2.2 million viewers, including 325,000 viewers in the all-important 25-54 age group.
Even the long-reigning kings of late night — from Stephen Colbert to Jimmy Fallon to Jimmy Kimmel — have failed to surpass Gutfeld.
Colbert was second to Gutfeld, with 1.9 million total viewers and 361,000 in the 25-54 demographic, while Kimmel, in third, managed just 262,000 viewers in that demographic, out of 1.4 million total viewers.
Fallon finished fourth with 1.3 million total viewers and 328,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic.
Although Nielsen ratings seem like an outdated metric in these modern days of streaming and YouTube, the numbers show that a significant amount of the population still tunes in to these types of talk shows.
Furthermore, left-leaning news and talk shows have historically dominated ratings and historically had a significant impact on Americans' general political views.
But as the Democratic Party and liberals in general become more extreme in their views, adopting extreme positions on abortion, gender ideology, and the immigration crisis, it is clear that most Americans are tired of hearing the same liberal talking points across the board.
After all, these late-night shows spend most of their time spouting partisan, anti-Christian and anti-American garbage.
Most of the so-called “humor” comes from shattering beliefs held by most Americans and winning the support of liberal elites.
Is it any wonder that a dissenting voice like Gutfeld beats them in the ratings?
Compare our recent crop of liberal late-night hosts to the undisputed king of the night, Johnny Carson.
Carson has always been careful to keep his political views off his show, except for occasional criticism of politicians, such as when his monologue mocked Biden during the 1987 plagiarism scandal.
He knew this wasn't his job, he was basically a comedian, not a political journalist.
The show was loved by everyone, which is a big part of what made “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” so successful.
He respected his fans even when he disagreed with them.
Can we say that about Colbert, who mocked all of middle America with Wanda Sykes after the Dobbs decision?
Or Stewart, who infamously described people who oppose transgender surgeries on minors as morons on his Apple TV show?
Or Kimmel, who said hospitals should turn away unvaccinated patients?
Perhaps this is why American viewers are more likely to watch right-leaning talk shows rather than programs that intentionally insult and alienate them.
You might think this would be a logical position, but a lot of late-night hosts forget Carson's example.
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.
