Late night network programs “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” shutdown production Tuesday after the Writers Guild of America went on strike.
But Fox News show “Gutfeld!” — a late night program for political conservatives — will continue producing new content, according to the Daily Beast.
The report notes the 11 p.m. show hosted by Greg Gutfeld has “some writers,” but they’re nonunion workers. The panel show “looks at the news of the day through a satiric lens fused with pop culture,” according to a Fox News descriptor.
“Gutfeld!” measures up well against mainstream late night shows in the ratings. In January, The Hill reported that CNN was kicking around the idea of launching a late night program fusing news with comedy to compete with Fox News after primetime ends.
Gutfeld has been with Fox News since 2007. He moved into the 11 p.m. slot in April 2021 and quickly declared himself “The King of Late Night.”
Late night comics Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers expressed optimism in recent days that the writers’ strike would be averted. Stephen Colbert showed a photo of his writers Monday night and said their “demands are not unreasonable.”
While negotiations between the WGA and producers revolve largely around streaming rights, late night shows were immediately impacted because they depend on writers to generate jokes based on the events of the day. Writers vowed to begin picketing Tuesday after a midnight negotiating deadline came and went.
Gutfeld, 58, pens his own daily monologue, but gets help from a handful of writers, according to Deadline. He also appears on the popular Fox News afternoon panel show “The Five.”
Fox News hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
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