To the surprise of no one, I am sure, political guests on late night TV shows are predominantly to the left, not the right.
But the degree to which it is true? That’s pretty startling.
Here is the list over recent years, as compiled by the (invaluable) Media Research Center:
511 to 14? As in over 97%. That, depending on your beliefs, is either absolutely amazing, absolutely disgusting, or both.
And in case you think things might have changed since President Trump took office, here is a segment of Alex Christy’s article on this topic:
For the men of the late night comedy talk shows, the first half of 2025 was an instance of history repeating itself. According to a NewsBusters study, 99 percent of their political guests were on the left, matching the result for the last six months of 2024.
The grand totals were 106 liberals and Democrats compared to one conservative.
The one late night show not measured in this analysis was Fox News’s Gutfeld!. This show, which airs at 10PM, has plenty of conservatives. But, unlike the others, it has to compete against first-run network programming.
So how is Gutfeld! doing?
From an article at ustvdb.com:
Gutfeld! (previously titled as The Greg Gutfeld Show until April 5, 2021) is a U.S. television program broadcast on Fox News since Sunday, May 31, 2015. Gutfeld is currently the third most popular show on Fox News and 14th overall on TV, watched by a total number of 3,148,000 people (0.99% rating, up +1% from yesterday) as of the daily audience measurement on . Gutfeld! is hosted by Gregory John Gutfeld (60).
And, as seen in this chart comparing it to viewership of other late night shows, it is blowing the competition away.
Is there a lesson to be learned somewhere in here?
Maybe so. But evidently the other networks haven’t learned it yet. Oh well….
