This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 6, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS HOST: -- condo collapse to 36. Now, we talked to Governor DeSantis at the outset of the show. He said, it is much easier now to access the rubble particularly the original rubble site from which all of these bodies that have been discovered have come. Four more just now. Here comes "The Five."
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello. I'm Greg Gutfeld with Katie Pavlich, Geraldo Rivera, Jesse Watters and for the Olympics she platform dives into a thermos, Dana Perino, "The Five."
So, this is a big week for us. Yes, it's bigger than Dana finally potty training Jasper who now flushes twice as a courtesy. And it's bigger than Jesse finally getting the hair transplant. Thanks to the Bronx Zoo for donating the minx.
No, but its way bigger than that. "The Five" is turning 10. This show is officially old enough for Anthony Weiner to start texting it. It's true. The show, probably one of the biggest hits and cable news has outlasted everything from "24" to "Lost" to Brian Stelter's hair. To put 10 years in perspective, that's four Geraldo marathons (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
I still remember when I was asked to do this show, one boss called me and said hey, we are doing this thing. You want to be on the thing? You have to write a mono for the thing. I said what's this thing pay? We had no expectations. All we had was our good looks and prescription medications.
But I remember sitting here on the first day next to Dana Perino, both on our booster chairs. She had ghosted me the entire time she was at Fox. But now she was stuck with me and against her better judgment and the restraining order, we bonded.
And the rest is what liberals hate, history. The show succeeds for one reason that other networks can't replicate. We are real and they aren't. Even though this show is seen by millions, it could just be one person. The cameras are on, the cameras are off, we don't change. There is no difference between us talking here and talking in the green room, except for Dana's filthy mouth.
She curses more than Jeb Zukker looking at this show's ratings. We are deliberately unpredictable. We just can't help it. We've just done something like 2,000 shows.
DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Wow.
GUTFELD: And like Trey Gowdy's hairdos, you'll never find one that's the same. They are all mutant snowflakes. But "The Five's" biggest reason for success is you, the viewer. You treat us like family. And by that, I don't mean showing up unexpectedly, eating all our food and then stealing our booze.
Instead, you welcomed us into your living room. I always know that if I'm down on my luck, you would lend me money just before payday. If Dana is on the run from the law for violating the height requirements at Six Flags or Jesse pulled another runner at another expensive dinner bill, you'd hide all of us. That's a true friend. And the reason for that is easy. Because while it's always 5:00 somewhere, the best somewhere is here. Is that --
PERINO: I love it.
GUTFELD: Thank you.
PERINO: Do it again.
GUTFELD: All right, I'll do it one more time. So Dana, what do you remember most about the early days?
PERINO: Well, I know that you think I ghosted you. I kind of did, because I didn't really know what I was doing.
GUTFELD: I have witnesses.
PERINO: I remember being, one, I didn't think the -- remember they told us it was a five-week temporary show?
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: So we all -- I think one of the reasons why we are like okay, let's just have fun is because we didn't think it was ever going to be anything.
GUTFELD: Right, exactly.
PERINO: And so it's like being on a high wire without a net, even though I wrote so many notes and I became so prepared. And then basically, they had to throw them away. And also, I remember this from those first days with two things.
One, that they sat us together, which was a really great -- turned out to be a blessing in my life. But it was really because we were the shortest people.
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: And for the lighting purposes, they had to sit us next to each other.
GUTFELD: Exactly. Yes.
PERINO: And the other thing I remember --
GUTFELD: Thank god I wasn't six feet tall.
PERINO: I remember how -- I think I was pretty reticent really to share any of my personal opinions on anything. I kept reverting back to whatever the Bush administration policy had been and I really credit you with helping me come out of my shell, and thanks for that.
GUTFELD: You're welcome.
PERINO: And thankfully I haven't been fired yet.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: By coming that far out of the shell.
GUTFELD: I remember I was so paranoid over doing these in-depth political stories that I was seeking help from all over the building. I don't know what to do. Like we were talking about these esoteric topics like --
PERINO: And 27 of them in one hour.
GUTFELD: Yes. We'd have like -- we'd have 20 topics, and I was freaking out and then I got over that. Jesse, you came late to the show and I've always said this, before "The Five," I could not stand you. Right, but -- it's honest. So what did "The Five" do that brought this Jesse out that we didn't know existed?
JESSE WATTERS FOX NEWS HOST: Well, one correction, you said we are the same on and off camera. I think I'm much worse off camera.
GUTFELD: Probably.
WATTERS: Much worse and I think everybody would agree. I do kind of feel like a woman right now. Let me explain. You know how --
PERINO: Hold my hand.
WATTERS: You know how women celebrate their birthday the whole week?
GUTFELD: Right.
WATTERS: That's what we're doing here on "The Five." Like celebrating the whole week. I got to say, I like how a woman feels. Yes, you said the other day you were like, Jesse, you've been here four years and now you are officially part of the family.
Four years? But, I mean, I think we've all changed in four years. I think Greg, you've gotten funnier and skinnier and much richer. And I think I have been more mature. I don't make personal attacks about people's physical appearance as much anymore.
I think Dana has probably changed the most. She started making sweeping generalizations about people based on skin color. I don't like that. So I think you need to watch your mouth. It is funny, like I started covering the Trump presidency, and that's a funny presidency to start from the set. Permission to make an analogy?
PERINO: Absolutely.
WATTERS: It's kind of like your first kiss as a supermodel. You set the bar really high and now we are covering Biden --
GUTFELD: Yes.
WATTERS: -- the presidency, if you can call it a presidency, and I think we have shifted pretty gracefully to cover Joe Biden. We work together really well. If you have an off day, I carry the show.
GUTFELD: Yes, that's true.
WATTERS: And I think that works and people enjoy it.
GUTFELD: Also, I mean, the ratings are amazing and like, you would think with a shift like that to go from the most interesting president to the most -- the ratings are like skyrocketing.
WATTERS: Still dominating.
GUTFELD: It's still dominating. Geraldo, you've been in TV for decades. You're a TV legend, so you know what works.
WATTERS: True.
GUTFELD: You know what works and what doesn't.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: How did we manage to last 10 years?
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think you are very unpredictable and I think the writing is excellent and I think you come up with great notions. And I like the chemistry, obviously, between you three main characters.
I've always been in an awkward role here, you know, filling in for Beckel first then Juan Williams and as the oddball, quasi-progressive person, but it works. I don't mind being the foil from time to time. You know, and you two together it's like teen kids news or something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Teen kids news.
RIVERA: And I was thinking about Trey Gowdy. Doesn't he remind you of Draco Malfoy? I mean, I'm surprised that you haven't used that comparison.
PERINO: I don't know.
RIVERA: I know but you've really -- you've become superstars in this universe. It is without question, unequivocally a huge smash, a big hit. Your success is well-earned and it is undeniable. So I'm pleased to be here.
PERINO: There were many doubters.
GUTFELD: Yes, there were.
RIVERA: Many, many.
GUTFELD: Katie, you --
KATIE PAVLICH, FOX NEWS HOST: There still are.
GUTFELD: Yes, there still are. I think when we first started, there was a guy that predicted that we would be done in months.
PERINO: There was a guy who told me not to unpack.
GUTFELD: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
PERINO: Yes, you used to work for him
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Katie, so your interaction is you're a regular coming in. What's your -- I would like to get your input on working with our producers.
PAVLICH: Oh.
GUTFELD: Who we have not mentioned yet, who often prepare you and prepare us for the show and deserve a lot of the gratitude that we, you know, and a lot of the success.
PAVLICH: Yes, the folks behind the scenes.
WATTERS: That was very hard for you to give --
(LAUGHTER)
WATTERS: -- Gutfeld. Way to go. It was like pulling teeth right there.
GUTFELD: Didn't you notice I was having problems with putting the words together.
PAVLICH: There's time for Greg to spread around the credit for the success of the show, but we're not being able to do that with your co-host and with the production team today. I think as you've seen over the course of 10 years and you will see throughout the week, there are so many amazing things that get planned for the show.
Things have to change around a lot. Breaking news changes things. Weather changes things. The rain if we had something planned outside, for example, we can't do it because of the humidity or a massive thunderstorm that may be coming through.
So the production team is amazing in the sense of answering your questions if you need extra information, briefing you on important topics, you know, following the facts so you don't say something that maybe isn't true.
PERINO: Dealing with us.
PAVLICH: And dealing with Greg mostly I think is the biggest challenge that they've had and they are very, very good at doing that.
PERINO: They are an excellent team.
GUTFELD: And you're going to tell us what's up this week, but to that point that's important about the whole idea that's being -- maybe we are over using the phrase cancel culture. But "The Five" is like on the forefront of that because we're live and we're daring people every day by what we do.
Like, there are over -- the people that hate this type of stuff listen to it hoping that we screw up.
PERINO: Yes.
GUTFELD: So we're right there on the front. We're live every day. We don't have the blessing of editing stuff out. And so you actually have people that work for a competing organizations and little blogs hoping that one of us screws up and that they can, you know --
PERINO: But then -- and to that point, we back each other up.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: The audience backs us up and then we are backed up by the people that work here.
GUTFELD: I'm often backed up.
See the rest here:
'The Five' on the rise in crime, Maxine Waters' tweet - Fox News
