Greg Gutfeld has built a reputation as one of the most unpredictable voices on television. But during his recent appearance on The Tonight Show, the Fox News host proved that his career wasn’t always lined with success—it was actually defined by a series of firings that ultimately led him to where he is today.

“People think getting fired is the worst thing that can happen,” Gutfeld said. “It’s actually the best. Every time I got fired, I ended up somewhere better.”

Greg Gutfeld said he got fired a lot before landing at Fox.

Before landing at Fox, Gutfeld bounced around the publishing world, editing Men’s Health, Stuff, and Maxim—until he was shown the door at each one. “At Men’s Health I was the king of abs,” he joked, recalling his famous “Five Minutes to Flat Abs” feature. “But then I got canned. Same story at Stuff. Same at Maxim. Fired everywhere.”

His break came by chance. Sitting in a Chelsea bar, a friend told him Fox was developing a late-night show. Broke and restless, Gutfeld jumped at the opportunity. That show became Red Eye, a chaotic 3 a.m. program fueled by irreverence, beer, and a surprisingly loyal audience of “speed dealers and breastfeeders,” as he described it.

From there, Gutfeld rose to The Five and eventually launched his own late-night program, Gutfeld!, which has rivaled traditional network talk shows in ratings.

But Gutfeld isn’t slowing down. He’s now hosting What Did I Miss?, a reality-style game show on Fox Nation where contestants are cut off from the world for 100 days—no phones, no internet—and then quizzed on major events they missed. The result is part news satire, part social experiment.

Watch: Jimmy Fallon welcomes Fox News' Greg Gutfeld to 'Tonight Show'

“Imagine coming out of the house and someone asks you, ‘True or false—the president annexed Canada?’” Gutfeld said with a grin. “With Trump, you honestly can’t tell.”

The prize money may not make anyone rich—$50,000 for three months of isolation—but the absurd premise has struck a chord. Fox Nation has already picked up the show for another season.

For Gutfeld, though, the lesson is bigger than ratings. “If I hadn’t been fired so many times, I’d never be here,” he reflected. “Getting fired isn’t the end. It’s usually the start of something better.”