An appearance by Fox News Channel host Greg Gutfeld “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” last week resulted in ratings gold for the NBC late-night show.
The show received the largest audience of the year Thursday in the network crossover event, per Fox News.
There were 1.7 million viewers watching, which made the show the highest-rated “Tonight Show” of 2025.
According to data from Nielsen Media Research, this resulted in a “57% increase compared to its year-to-date average of 1.1 million viewers.”
The Jonas Brothers also made an appearance on the show.
The show’s appeal carried over onto YouTube where a clip had about 1 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
The bulk of the episode included the two reminiscing about the first time they met in an “illegal speakeasy,” Gutfeld said.
They also talked about Gutfeld’s new game show on Fox — “What Did I Miss?”
The show’s contestants are isolated for a month and then given headlines that they have to guess are true or false.
Thursday’s “Gutfeld!” topped all late-night shows with 2.7 million total viewers.
Gutfeld’s appearance on “The Tonight Show” also increased its demographic for the 25-54 age range — the prize demographic for advertisers. This was a 13% increase from the 2025 average.
IJR previously reported on their conversation.
“This is hilarious – we’ve met before,” Fallon said.
“Yes, you have no memory of it,” Gutfeld said. “Which is understandable, because we were wasted.”
The two met in an “illegal speakeasy” in Hell’s Kitchen, Gutfeld said.
It looked “like a place where special ops forces waterboard terrorists,” he added.
“You’re not making this up. I totally know what you’re talking about,” Fallon responded. “I think I remember bringing beer into the bar, and then him charging me for my own beer.”
Gutfeld then recalled their first interaction.
“And you run towards me, and you tackle me, like you’re a giant golden retriever,” Gutfeld said. “You’re like on top of me. And so we’re wrestling. We’re wrestling. And then you change, and you start wrestling my buddy Andy, and you’re wrestling him. And you guys get on the ground. You guys are now on the ground wrestling.”
