Tucker Carlson Dethrones Joe Rogan From Atop The Coveted Spotify Podcast Rankings

Screenshots via Joe Rogan Experience YouTube

Hard right provocateur and fired Fox News opinion host, Tucker Carlson , dethroned Joe Rogan this week by taking over the top spot on Spotify’s podcast charts.

Rogan, who slipped to second place, has long reigned as the most-listened to podcast on Spotify, where his Joe Rogan Experience podcast runs exclusively. In early 2024, Rogan renewed his deal with Spotify, the most-used audio platform in the country, for a reported $250 million over multiple years.

Rogan’s eyeball-popping salary from Spotify is a testament to both the reach and profitability of his show, which Carlson has now beaten out in terms of audience – at least for Thursday. As of March 2024, Rogan had some 14.5 million followers on Spotify, according to Bloomberg. Rogan also commands a large audience on YouTube, while Carlson posts his show to X.

Carlson, who was fired from Fox last April while hosting the most-popular show on cable news, debuted his podcast last December on the newly created Tucker Carlson Network. Carlson has since gone even further off the rails into conspiracy theory minded commentary than he did while on Fox, where he pushed wild claims like that the federal government was behind the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and that the U.S. had bioweapons facilities in Ukraine.

Carlson’s Thursday show featured an interview with former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson , but often has guests that overlap with Rogan’s program – namely populist right-wing figures and comedians.

Rogan himself has courted controversy in recent years, primarily for promoting inaccurate information despite his producers regularly Googling to fact-check during the show. The AP reported on Rogan’s controversies:

Most notably, Spotify came under huge pressure in 2022 to drop Rogan over his anti-coronavirus vaccine comments and use of racial slurs, with some musicians, including Neil Young, pulling their music from the platform in protest.

In February 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek denounced the host’s racist language but said, “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.”

Candace Owens , who has courted controversy herself in recent weeks for pushing anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, had the 8th most-listened to podcast on Spotify, while former Fox host Dan Bongino had the 5th most-listened to show.

Full chart here .