While the press mocked, Greg romped.

Although he has been a fixture on Fox News for years, the announcement that Greg Gutfeld was being given a regular time slot on weeknights generated reactions — from those outside the Fox News orbit. Anyone familiar with the news channel probably considered this a modest piece of news, as Gutfeld has been on a number of shows across the schedule. But the announcement was met with unified rebukes from those on the left.

A number of journalists and entertainers have been responding to the debut this week, and it is consistently critical. Upon the announcement in February, Brian Stelter was critical, making the judgment that placing Gutfeld in the 11 pm time slot was somehow a sign of the channel entrenching its bias.

Yet another example of Fox News shifting further to the right: Putting a right-wing comedy show at 11pm, bumping "news" to midnight ET https://t.co/LIvhL4VxJK

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 10, 2021

The complaint about ‘’bumping news’’ from that hour is a curious one, considering his own channel had recently made its own announcement of a schedule change. CNN began running a food show, ‘’Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy’’ in the 9 pm slot on Sundays. Others have also weighed in on the ‘’Gutfeld!’’ It has been predictably acerbic.

“It’s like watching a guy going through a divorce doing an impression of Bill Maher."https://t.co/xEuyQiUXqu

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 6, 2021

Congratulations to the confused raccoon who wandered into one of the UCB Sketch Writing 101 classes I taught ten years ago for staffing on the Greg Gutfeld Show

— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) April 6, 2021

Greg Gutfeld’s new Fox News late night comedy show is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen and I was in Gigli.

— David Pressman (@DavidPressman) April 7, 2021

(Admittedly, this was funny.)

One other person is laughing today — Greg Gutfeld. For all of the bile hurled his way and the derision from those who went into the viewing with preconceived critiques, they had little impact on driving people away. The ratings came in for the week, and ‘’Gutfeld’’ did not only perform admirably — it beat most of the competition. With the exception of ‘’The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’’ all of the other competitors came in behind ‘’Gutfeld!’’

The debut was the best of all other talkers.

Look at those numbers for
Greg Gutfeld!
That is some legit late night competition! Talk all the smack you want. This show is for real.
Congrats @greggutfeld & everyone making the show happen. pic.twitter.com/5mKBm2FTq4

— The Loftus Party (@theloftusparty) April 7, 2021

For the week he also held well, as the second highest-rated show among the seasoned programs.

Gutfeld premiere ratings update: In addition to beating its cable rivals the premiere of @Gutfeldfox with @greggutfeld also beat broadcast network shows Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden, Nightline, etc. pic.twitter.com/vJIXhyApoY

— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) April 7, 2021

Making this more significant is the show appearing on a cable channel outperforming those on the broadcast networks. That the stalwarts like Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel would lag him is significant. Of course, the real indicator will be seen in the coming months. If the show can hold up at this level — or grow its audience — that will be the real indicator of the heft of this initial performance. Gutfeld, so far, has shown he has enough of a draw to justify this decision by Fox News.