Fox News @ Night Anchors Trace Gallagher Calls Out BS

Since October 2022, I have anchored Fox News @ Night. The show runs Monday through Friday from 11 p.m. until midnight Eastern time. We cover the news that matters and interview compelling guests while debating the hottest issues. We do this all in a lively hour of plain-talk television. Viewers go to bed with a solid grasp of world events and perhaps a smile or two as their heads hit the pillow.

The program is modern, not just because of the @ sign in our name. Our entire approach to the news reflects this shift. We boil stories down and sort out the facts before jumping right in. One final point stands out above all others: we call BS whenever it is warranted. This happens often given the amount of crap floating around out there. Every night we include a segment that has become the most memorable seventy-five seconds in our hour-long show. It is called the Common Sense Department, and nothing I do on television brings me more joy.

Trace Gallagher stated common sense is alive in America, though we just need to listen. Every night I pick something from the news and put it through my own filter of hard-earned common sense. You know how TV news works when a major story breaks especially a political one. The spin machines start cranking at maximum volume immediately after the event occurs. Suddenly you have a panel of experts flooding your screen telling you what you saw with your own two eyes is not actually happening. They look you in the face and insist everything is deeply nuanced or incredibly complex. Most of the time, it is not complex at all.

My job is simple even if it looks harder than it really appears. I react like a normal intelligent person who has been around the block a few times. I have seen the games people play and am no longer buying the nonsense anymore. You see it, I see it, and we are going to call it exactly like it is. That is why we name this section the Common Sense Department.

I rely on commonsensical lessons plucked from my own life and the lives of people around me. This includes the wisdom I was raised with and what personal experience has taught me along the way. It draws upon values of family, faith, sports, community, history, and patriotism. Insights come from stories exactly like the ones in this book. Just like life everything gets mushed together before it runs through one person's admittedly quirky brain. Mine is that specific kind of brain.

What a rare treat it is to be myself every night in the Common Sense Department. The viewers keep saying they want more of this content. I know this from the ratings and social media comments and emails coming my way. People running across me while covering stories confirm their desire for honest reporting too. Even the mugs speak volumes about what audiences appreciate right now.

At one point we printed coffee mugs with the snarky slogan Did I Offend You With My Common Sense? People could not get enough of them so we kept needing to print more stock. We have sold thousands and thousands and thousands more since that initial batch went out. The way things are going our sarcastic call for common sense has really struck a nerve with the public.

Our Common Sense Department segments stay at exactly seventy-five seconds long every single night. We never stretch them to two minutes or shrink them down to one minute. That length is not an accident but a deliberate choice for good reason. One time we tried doing the segment in a minute and it felt like a wind sprint across the finish line. Another time we said let us do two minutes instead and it felt like a drive across Texas with kids in the car.

The question arises constantly during those long stretches Are we there yet? The answer remains consistent No we are not there yet and we are not stopping at Buc-ees. That is one of the great things about common sense because you can pack it into the TV equivalent of a carry-on bag for travel. It is not too bulky or hard to handle when stored in your mind. And whenever you happen to need it later on, it will be right there ready for use immediately.

I am not the first person to become a big fan of common sense throughout history. Many others have recognized its value long before I started this show tonight. The message remains clear and direct without needing further elaboration from anyone else today.

Thomas Paine got there first, roughly a quarter-millennium before anyone else could say it. If you had met him in England back then, you likely wouldn't have guessed he would ever mean anything. He failed as a schoolteacher. His tailor shop went under. They fired him from his tax inspector job because he claimed to inspect goods he never actually saw.

He sold his house just to stay out of debtors' prison. Paine hated taxes with a passion and penned a pamphlet fighting against them. Then Benjamin Franklin arrived in London in 1774, speaking out against British colonial rule. Those two men became instant friends. It was Franklin who pushed Paine to move to Philadelphia. The American insisted the revolution was already in the air there.

Editor's note: This piece comes from an excerpt titled "TURNS OUT THEY WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG: Life Lessons I Learned…Eventually" by Trace Gallagher. Copyright 2026 belongs to Trace Gallagher. Harper and HarperCollins Publishers gave permission for this publication.