POINT BEACH — If the crowds over at the boardwalk seemed even larger on Friday, June 7, it was because the popular Fox News talk show “The Five” held a special live episode inside of Martell’s.
Thousands of residents gathered outside the boardwalk and crammed inside the restaurant to get a chance to see the show live. The hour-long talk show features four consistent Republican-leaning hosts, Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro, along with an alternating liberal host. On Friday, this was Harold Ford Jr.
While the show was difficult to hear inside of the restaurant, this did not stop the crowd of residents from cheering and chanting when prompted to do so or when the hosts said something the crowds enjoyed.
Multiple times the sea of residents erupted into chants of “Let’s Go Brandon” and constantly saying “Trump” over and over again when the hosts brought up the former president.
The crowd also boo’d when President Joe Biden was shown on screen.
Point Pleasant Beach resident Anthony Sparacino and his sister Andrea, both are fans of “The Five” and said they did not mind waiting around to see the hosts show up for the event. He said, “I just wanted to show we are Republican and we want some changes. That’s it. We want to change everything. This is ridiculous the way we are living our lives.”
Karen Olobardi, a Point Pleasant Borough resident, said, “I saw…’The Five’ was going to be here live and through, ‘why not,’ I love this show.”
Brett Zoeller, senior executive producer of “The Five” told The Ocean Star, “over the years, we’ve had great interactions with the Jersey Shore community through various events and book signings and we thought Point Pleasant would be the perfect place to kick off the summer with our ‘Beach Bash’ show.”
“We love the opportunity to get out of the studio and interact with the fans. ‘The Five’ viewers are the best and very loyal. Over the course of almost 13 years the show has been on the air, we’ve developed a unique bond with our audience. We’re fortunate to have millions of Americans welcome us into their homes five days a week. Their loyalty has made the show successful, so we appreciate any chance we get to interact with the people who tune in every night,” said Zoeller.
Throughout the show, the hosts would often turn to the crowd to hype them up, and even as they left, the crowd of excited residents mobbed them to meet and take photos with them.
Zoeller added, “The cohosts really enjoy spending time with our fans. They appreciate people watching and taking the time out of their busy schedules to come and see them in person. From my perspective, it’s fun to see the interactions. We’ll be walking down the street and all of the sudden you’ll hear ‘Hey, that’s The Five,’ and people will want to stop to talk, take pictures or just mention how much they love the show.
He also added that having a live audience adds a different dynamic to the show, “The hosts feed off the energy of the crowd and it provides a nice change from being in the studio. We’ve taken the show on the road a few times recently including to Nashville, Tennessee and we’ll be at the political conventions this summer. It’s fun, exciting and adds an element to the show that we don’t always get.”
“Highlighting issues that are important to Americans is a key part of the show. I think that’s why viewers find the co-hosts so relatable,” said Zoeller. “They talk about things that people care about and in such a way that people can connect with. There aren’t talking points or platitudes, the co-hosts give their honest opinions on whatever the topic is.”
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