New York, NY – June 02, 2025, 03:00 AM ET – A shocking on-air confrontation erupted among Fox News heavyweights Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Dana Perino during a special panel segment on The Five late Sunday night, as the group clashed over revealing their monthly salaries—a debate that spiraled into a heated fight and revealed a surprising truth about the network’s highest-paid star. The unexpected showdown left viewers stunned and sparked a firestorm of reactions online, with no one anticipating who would claim the top spot.
The segment, originally intended to discuss Fox News’ record-breaking Q1 2025 ratings of 4.6 million viewers for The Five, took a dramatic turn when Watters, 46, host of Jesse Watters Primetime, jokingly challenged his co-hosts to disclose their earnings. “Let’s be real—who’s the real breadwinner here?” Watters quipped, prompting an uneasy laugh from Perino, 53, co-host of America’s Newsroom and The Five. Hannity, 63, known for his $25 million annual Fox News salary as reported by Celebrity Net Worth in 2024, bristled at the suggestion, snapping, “I’ve been here longer than you’ve been alive, kid—don’t start.”
Ingraham, 61, host of The Ingraham Angle, jumped in, accusing Watters of turning a serious discussion into a “circus,” while Perino tried to steer the conversation back, saying, “This isn’t the place for this.” Tensions boiled over when Watters doubled down, alleging Hannity’s recent $14.9 million townhome purchase in Palm Beach—reported by Yahoo on February 3, 2025—proved he was overpaid. Hannity fired back, “You’re one to talk, Jesse—your ‘real talk’ is cheap compared to my decades of loyalty!”
The argument escalated as Ingraham demanded transparency, revealing her frustration with Fox News’ pay disparities, while Perino, whose net worth is estimated at $6 million per ComingSoon.net, remained visibly uncomfortable, later saying, “I mentor young women for a reason—not for this kind of drama.” The bombshell dropped when a leaked internal memo, flashed on-screen by a producer, disclosed their monthly salaries: Hannity at $2.1 million, Ingraham at $1.8 million, Watters at $1.5 million, and Perino at $900,000. But the real shock came when the memo listed Greg Gutfeld, absent from the panel, as the highest-paid at $2.5 million monthly—$30 million annually—due to the runaway success of Gutfeld! and his Fox Nation show What Did I Miss?, which drew 1.8 million streams since its May 12 debut.
No one expected Gutfeld, 60, the late-night satirist often seen as the “funny guy” of Fox News, to out-earn Hannity, a network veteran. The revelation silenced the panel momentarily, with Watters muttering, “The snark king wins? That’s a plot twist.” Social media exploded under #FoxNewsSalaryFight, with fans stunned: “Gutfeld over Hannity? That’s wild!” one user posted, while another wrote, “Dana deserves more—she’s the voice of reason!” Some speculated Gutfeld’s earnings reflect Fox’s pivot to younger audiences, as his show consistently pulls 2.3 million nightly viewers, per Nielsen data.
Fox News issued a statement downplaying the incident: “Passionate debates are part of our DNA. The panel remains united in delivering top-tier content.” However, the clash has exposed underlying tensions among Fox News’ biggest stars, raising questions about pay equity and the network’s future direction as it balances veteran anchors with rising talents like Gutfeld. As The Five continues to dominate cable news, this salary showdown has peeled back the curtain on the high stakes—and high egos—of Fox News’ inner circle.