(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) The Fox network is putting a super wager on its superstar during its Super Bowl, allotting some of media’s most precious and coveted advertising space to promote the cable network’s smash hit late night show.
The quick-hitting ad pays homage the network’s show Gutfeld! and its skyrocketing ratings, compared to the floundering dreck peddled by late-night alleged comics Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
Networks that host the Super Bowl usually reserve the few available slots for “house” ads, which tout their own offerings, for their top programming or high-profile events, according to the Hollywood Reporter. At a price upwards of $7 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, the network is betting big on Gutfeld!, crowning its host “The new king of late night.”
The tagline plays off Greg Gutfeld’s meteoric ratings, which last year and the first month of this year topped NBC’s Tonight Show and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, trailing only CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert in total viewers, which Gutfeld beat in ratings from August to December last year.
Gutfeld, bedecked in royal wardrobe and crown, makes the most of the quick spot, goofing on the ad being cut short with an off-camera voice quipping, “Sorry, these ads are pricey.”
Gutfeld pulls it off with his usual combination of snark and smarts, even landing a shot mocking so-called cultural appropriation.
“So funny,” raved TV icon and rare Hollywood conservative Chuck Woolery.
“This is absolutely hilarious!!” agreed Trump’s former deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka.
The network also plans to slightly modified, 20-second spot that puts more focus on some of Gutfeld’s regular guests, which will air on Fox News.
