Matt Gaetz’s brand new show on the far-right wing One America News Network began with him looking absolutely bizarre.
It was unclear who had applied the disgraced congressman’s makeup, but the combination of very light concealer around his eyes and dark foundation on the rest of his face made for an odd look, like a sort of reverse Hamburglar.
That distracting appearance proved to be the only memorable thing about his first episode. Gaetz spent 60 minutes waddling through boilerplate conservative talking points in front of a cheap-looking green-screen, all in an attempt to continue his time in the public eye.
Gaetz rehashed the insurrection on January 6 – four years later – and had a pop at “the disgraced service of Liz Cheney”, the centrist Republican who served on the committee investigating that insurrection.
Elsewhere, much of the show was typically self-serving. Gaetz played a clip of himself being a nuisance in the House of Representatives – he was part of the 2023 debacle that saw Republicans hold 15 votes before electing a speaker – and claimed he had been “physically attacked” for his stance.
It turns out that the waffle may have been to fill time. As a politician, Gaetz’s only real success was becoming, arguably, the most loathed individual in Congress, and that was shown in the quality of his guests.
Lauren Boebert, the Colorado congresswomen best known for her anti-LGBTQ+ views, repeated Islamophobic remarks, and fondling someone at a musical, was first up. Gaetz announced Boebert as the show’s “firebrand of the day” – words that were accompanied onscreen by an amateurish graphic that was on fire.
A breathless Boebert talked loudly and humorlessly for several minutes about nothing in particular before being waved off by Gaetz, who claimed, without evidence, that “so many Americans are comforted that you are standing in the breach for the America First agenda”.
Next up was Thomas Massie, the sweatiest man in Congress, who was once called “a third rate grandstander” by Donald Trump. Massie suggested that the House of Representatives should prioritize doing away with the twice-yearly time change.
It was pretty lackluster, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. A clip of the show shared on the OAN YouTube channel on the day of Gaetz’s dreary debut has amassed just 2,600 views in the 13 days since it was posted.
Indeed, the only thing of interest I found relating to Gaetz’s new home on OAN was an item on its website in which Gaetz advertises two different intestinal worm medications. That kind of thing rarely appears on mainstream news sites, but presumably OAN knows its audience.
Gaetz turned to One America News after his political career fell apart at the end of 2024. A congressman representing Florida since 2017, he was nominated to be attorney general by Trump in November, but withdrew from consideration eight days later amid scrutiny over longstanding allegations of sexual misconduct, including having sex with a minor.
That didn’t disqualify him from the OAN job, however, which announced Gaetz’s hiring in December. A thrilled Gaetz expanded on his role in a speech at a Turning Point Action event that month.
“I was known as a feisty, tough and at times exciting congressman,” Gaetz said, offering a rather generous interpretation of his time in office.
“One America News is a feisty, tough, exciting news organization and I am thrilled to be joining their line-up.”
On 23 December, two weeks after OAN announced Gaetz’s hiring, a House ethics report found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz paid for sex with a minor, among other serious violations of state law and congressional rules. With OAN struggling itself – it has been dropped by all major cable networks, and can only be watched on three mysterious platforms called “Vidgo”, “GCI” and “KlowdTV” – it may be that the network sees keeping Gaetz as a necessary roll of the dice.
If that’s the case, it has been a bad roll. In the days since Gaetz’s debut, the content of his show – and the quality of his guests – has not improved.
George Santos, a disgraced congressman who won election by essentially lying about every aspect of his life before being convicted of conning donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people, was one of the star guests in what was probably supposed to be a light hearted segment about Gaetz’s makeup fiasco.
“Matt Gaetz let me tell you something: highlighter is not for you. Stop highlighting the center of your face, it makes your eyes very small,” Santos told the host.
“I was concerned when I saw the images I thought you had botched Botox or something.”
Of course, putting on makeup in a manner that makes you look like you’ve had your face dunked in a chocolate cake is not mutually exclusive with Gaetz having botched Botox, but it was at least a reprieve from the other third-rate guests that Gaetz has managed to attract.
Dressed in a black suit with a poorly knotted tie, Gaetz welcomed on Rudy Giuliani – Republicans who have become persona non grata seem to be finding a home on the show – and asked him what Democrats had planned for Trump’s second term.
Giuliani, who in 2023 was ordered to pay nearly $150m to two Georgia election workers he defamed, clearly had no idea, and the conversation stalled. On YouTube, the clip has received 10,000 views – fewer than 6,000 people watched the Santos conversation – which is not the kind of number that will revive OAN or Gaetz’s fortunes.
It leads one to conclude that, ultimately, the Matt Gaetz show has a lot in common with the man himself. It’s memorable, but only for the wrong reasons, it looks terrible and – based on those viewing figures – it is ultimately unpopular.
