Jimmy Fallon was accused of “groveling to the MAGA media machine” for interviewing Fox News wiseass Greg Gutfeld on “The Tonight Show” last week.

Now Fallon and the NBC talk franchise might also be accused of making a shrewd move.

The episode from Thursday averaged 1.71 million viewers, the most for a regular “Tonight Show” episode since Dec. 19, 2023, LateNighter reported off the Nielsen ratings. (That number has been surpassed in that time period by episodes that follow football games on the network and the Olympic opening ceremony.)

The audience represented a 57% increase over its 2025 average, according to the Nielsen data reported by Fox News.

LateNighter surmised that the controversial “Gutfeld!” host “brought his Fox News audience with him.” It noted that while fellow guests the Jonas Brothers might have also contributed to the viewership, watchers increased during Gutfeld’s segment.

The video of the interview is also by far the most-watched in the last several days on the YouTube page of the “The Tonight Show.”

The two avoided politics in their chummy chat.

The bonhomie riled up some viewers, who objected to Fallon giving him any kind platform. Gutfeld has been known to traffic in racially charged humor and conspiracy theories.

“Fallon has always been a ‘yes to everyone’ man. The guy’s got almost zero convictions,” one person wrote.

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Gutfeld said on his own show that Fallon showed “guts” for having him on.

Neither “The Tonight Show” nor NBC immediately returned a HuffPost request for comment.

Greg Gutfeld was interviewed by Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” and drew big ratings.