Gutfeld on top, Richards on the outs. Trapped in Afghanistan. A towel rant.

Fox News continued to rule the roost as the top rated cable TV news network for the month of August. The network's top-rated prime time hosts cleaned up overall, but Greg Gutfeld’s recently launched show really stands out for competing against, and beating, the late night talk hosts on network TV.

As America watched Afghanistan’s descent into chaos and the Taliban’s takeover, Tucker Carlson Tonight was once again the highest rated show of its time slot with an average 3.3 million viewers and 551,000 in the 25-54 demographic. Sean Hannity was up next with 3 million viewers with 503,000 in the demo. Rachel Maddow was relegated to 6th place after The Five scored 3.1 million with 460,000 in the demo, and Laura Ingraham got 2.4 million viewers (410,000 in the demo).

As usual, Maddow had the top rated show on MSNBC, raking in 2.2 million in total viewers and 285,000 in the demo.

Cuomo Prime Time is still the leading program for CNN, despite the controversy that engulfed the Cuomo family throughout the month of August.

Gutfeld, meanwhile, had its highest-rated month since it moved to weeknights in April and underwent its rebrand. The show was the leading program in its block with 1.7 million viewers on average and 312,000 in the demo. That bested Jimmy Kimmel Live! for total viewers on ABC, NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Gutfeld also topped Stephen Colbert with his strongest week. The Late Show had 1.9 million viewers with 395,000 in the A25-54, while Gutfeld had 2 million viewers and 405,000 with the A25-54.

When comparing both FNC's total viewership (1.4 million/day) and prime time viewership (2.5 million) against MSNBC and especially CNN, the differences in both raw numbers and year to year decline are stark.

Sony Pictures Television has announced that Mike Richards is no longer the executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune after a series of controversies.

“I’m writing to let you know that Mike will no longer be serving as EP of Wheel and Jeopardy! effective immediately,” announced Suzanne Prete, EVP, Business and Strategy. “We had hoped that when Mike stepped down from the host position at Jeopardy! it would have minimized the disruption and internal difficulties we have all experienced these last few weeks. That clearly has not happened.”

Prete goes on to say Embassy Row’s Michael Davies will take over production on an interim basis “until further notice.” Richards’ firing is the latest development in the bizarre saga to find a permanent host for Jeopardy! after the passing of Alex Trebek.

Richards was set to take Trebek’s place, but just as his host-ship got underway, there was a public re-emergence of the discrimination lawsuits he faced back when he was EP of The Price Is Right. These lawsuits revolved around allegations that Richards presided over a toxic work environment, plus Richards was also under fire over a number of offensive comments he made on a podcast years ago.

The controversy prompted an apologetic announcement that he would step down as host, though he retained his executive producer position.

This fueled public speculation about whether the new host decision was rigged in Richards’ favor all along, given his influence over the selection.

The totality of the various controversies erupting around Richards in such a shoret period of time was almost breathtaking. He has become a household name, at least in Jeopardy circles, but definitely not in the way he'd anticipated..