Fox News’ live coverage of what appeared to be a break in the Nancy Guthrie case left a pre-taped episode of Gutfeld! on the shelf Tuesday night.
With news that authorities had detained a person of interest in Guthrie’s disappearance, Fox News aired an hour of live, Trace Gallagher–anchored coverage from Tucson in place of its usual 10 p.m. offering.
It’s not the first time breaking news has preempted a ready-to-go Gutfeld!, which tapes earlier in the evening at Fox News’ New York studios—and, as in the past, the move was not well received by the show’s fans.
“Oh, great. Who needs a new episode of Gutfeld! when we can hear two minutes of information stretched out and repeated for hours, with a bunch of filler nonsense in between?” one viewer posted on X.
“Run the coverage in a small box during Gutfeld!,” wrote another. “Put that audio on the SAP. Those who want to continue to hear the same thing over and over and over can do so.”
Others urged the network to shift Gutfeld! to Fox Business when breaking news preempts the show—and/or make the episode available online.
We hear the current plan inside Fox News is to air Tuesday night’s episode tonight instead.
It is rare, but not completely unheard of, for late-night shows to completely shelve a preempted episode. One memorable example came in January 1991, when an episode of Late Night with David Letterman was preempted at the start of the Gulf War and never aired.
