Success of ‘Gutfeld’ Proves Market Demand for Funny Alternative to ‘SNL:’ Bobby Burack

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In 2024, Fox News’ late-night-style program “Gutfeld” was the fourth most-watched show in cable news. FNC launched the weekday show in 2022 and almost instantaneously edged the traditional late-night shows on ABC, NBC, and CBS in viewership, despite the inherent distaste for airing only on cable television. “Gutfeld” averaged more viewers than “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2024.

The results are not all that surprising. “Gutfeld” found a niche: half of the country. Err, more accurately, the rest of the country. 

The late-night industry made a decision in 2016 to cater only to the most ardent leftist viewers. According to the Media Research Center, 98% of all political jokes on late-night television from September 3 through October 25 targeted Donald Trump. Moreover, the researcher considered 94% of all guests ” liberal.”

Sound familiar?

The classic sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” shifted in the same direction about eight years ago. Per MRC, 84% of “SNL” jokes during the election cycle also focused on just Donald Trump. 

Tampon Tim didn’t cut it, huh?

And viewership for “SNL” cratered as a result. In the weeks leading up to the election, the show averaged just 5.4 million viewers, down 25% from the 2020 election cycle and nearly a third from 2016. The first post-election installment of “SNL” drew only 4.4 million viewers. In 2016, the post-election show edition averaged 9.2 million viewers.

Americans didn’t lose interest in satire. The success of “Gutfeld” proves that. But there are people who want to laugh who reside outside the coastal elite bubble that “SNL” almost exclusively prioritizes.

Put simply, a politically incorrect alternative to “SNL” is a gold mine. 

(No, reinventing “Mad TV” wouldn’t cut it.)

The fodder is endless. Look at the state of American society. Half of the political aisle can’t define the word “woman.” As a culture, we have fallen submissive to the hierarchy of victimhood that dictates we award and punish Americans based on their color and sexual preferences.

Sorry, white men. Congratulations, non-binary people (whatever you are).

And because of fierce political guardrails, we have yet to properly ridicule COVID tyranny, BLM, funding Ukraine’s war, Kamala Harris’ political campaign, the censors, or the miserable blue-haired woke people.

The climate cultists demand you turn down our air conditioners but have no comment on the eerie threat of artificial intelligence’s insatiable demand for energy currently destroying our power grid. They deserve it too.

We understand Donald Trump is the golden goose. However, he is not the only made-for-TV public figure worth mocking. George Soros, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Benjamin Crump, and the liars of #MeToo could also be quite resourceful.

Imagine if an unafraid, actually funny version of “SNL” existed during the 2024 election, Biden’s presidency, or during any of the ever-growing list of race hoaxes.

Imagine Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, existing and being too scared to depict it comedically.

“SNL” frequently cold opens with a bit from “Fox & Friends.” Fair. But the show also missed a prosperous opportunity to do the same after Joe Scarborough and his wife flew to Mar-a-Lago and bent the knee to Donald Trump after months of comparing him to Adolf Hitler, who vowed to exterminate the Jews.

The hyenas of “The View” were born to be sketch comedy characters, especially when they express actual fear that Trump will put them in concentration camps. Joy Reid, who is now balding, literally uploads videos to TikTok calling white people “mayonnaise sandwiches.”

For the record, “SNL” didn’t consider any of these stories worth a bit.

The world of sports is also ripe for ridicule. Men are playing sports, changing naked, and showing with women in the name of transgenderism. “SNL” won’t touch it.

An entire professional sports league spent the summer physically and mentally abusing a phenom because she is white, straight, and better at basketball than most of the black lesbians in the league. Yet the bullying turned so intense the straight white woman, like a hostage crying for help, denounced her own white privilege last month.

“I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” Caitlin Clark told Time. “The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important.”

Fact check: no.

A manikin was (allegedly) our president for four years. We live in a society that celebrates the life of career-long criminal George Floyd and chastises Christopher Columbus.

Our phones are watching our every move, the banks are punking us, and Big Pharma is probably killing us – yet the news organizations and politicians are too compromised to address it.

American society is run by a ship of fools.

Perhaps the only effective way to explain the state of America in 2025 is through satire. At least we could all laugh together.

“Gutfeld” is an overwhelming success. Rob Schneider is in the process of launching an alternative to “The View.” A direct competitor to “SNL” ought to be next, with the specific goal of making comedy funny again.

Just find the inverse of modern-day Lorne Michaels to make it happen.