Podbit · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Any presidential candidate will appear on a podcast within 48–72 hours of being called. After what happened with Trump's podcast blitz, the political class now treats podcasters as the primary arbiters of who gets elected.
Where this was said
At 12:08 · chapter starts 7:10
The second question comes from a self-described 20-year-old who still watches Jimmy Kimmel and NBC News every night on YouTube — a demographic so rare that Galloway compares them to a deep-sea creature thought to be extinct. The cultural argument is acknowledged: Galloway praises Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers as genuinely gifted performers. But the economic reality is damning. Viewership is down 90% since Johnny Carson. Combined ad revenue fell from $439M in 2018 to $220M in 2024 — halved in six years [1] — Scott Galloway "Late-night ad revenue halved in 6 years: Combined network late-night ad revenue fell from $439M in 2018 to $220M in 2024 — cut in half in j…" 09:10 . The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ran $60M in revenue against $100M in costs, employing 200 people — a structure that makes cancellation almost inevitable. Galloway's prediction: Colbert starts a podcast, employs six people, generates $20M in revenue against $4–5M in costs, and makes the same money or more [2] — Scott Galloway "Podcasts deliver 80% of the quality of a TV show at 5% of the cost. Stephen Colbert's show ran 200 people for $100M; a podcast version need…" 09:53 . Conan O'Brien's trajectory — from under 1M nightly TV viewers to 9M YouTube subscribers — is the proof of concept. The segment closes with Galloway's broader thesis: podcasts are television shows that arbitrage the means of production, delivering 80% of TV quality at 5% of the cost. And politically, the medium now wields so much influence that any presidential candidate will appear within 48–72 hours of being called.
As a percentage of American households that tune in, late-night TV viewership has dropped 90% since the Johnny Carson era.
Combined late-night network ad revenue collapsed from $439M in 2018 to $220M in 2024. Viewership is down 90% since Johnny Carson. The average show now loses $40M a season. The industry isn't struggling — it's structurally broken.
In 2015 the average late-night comedy show generated $180M in profit; today the average show loses $40M per season.
Since 2016, the Late Show, Tonight Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live have lost 70 to 80% of their core 18-to-49 demographic audience.
Combined network late-night ad revenue fell from $439M in 2018 to $220M in 2024 — cut in half in just six years.
Conan O'Brien struggled to hit one million nightly viewers on TBS. After leaving TV, he accumulated nine million YouTube subscribers. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel's clips get three times as many views on YouTube as on broadcast.
Ten years ago, 90% of tech media coverage was relentlessly negative and Kalanick felt he couldn't speak freely. Today, the rise of independent podcasters and Elon Musk buying Twitter has fundamentally changed the game — and it's why he's finally willing to talk.
Kay Classman, 28, was arrested for repeatedly posing as a 16-year-old and enrolling in Bronx high schools across multiple districts. She wasn't a predator — just someone so sad and lonely she wanted her lost childhood back. That's somehow sadder.
Disney, Meta, and Paramount have collectively paid Trump roughly $60 million to settle what Galloway calls nuisance lawsuits — all routed to his presidential library. Newsrooms are folding. The White House is handpicking press pool participants. This is what the end of a free press looks like.
One cheap fake documentary made by a teenager in his mother's basement convinced 16% of Americans that 9/11 was an inside job. Social media didn't invent conspiracy — it just gave it a rocket engine.
A progressive organization with a stated mission to destroy Turning Point USA received millions from ActBlue and is now publicly pushing the narrative that TPUSA insiders and Israel murdered Charlie Kirk. Andrew Wilson traced the network of accounts all amplifying the same conspiracy in perfect unison.
The microphone-bomb theory fails on every physical front: no smoke, no ignition, mic on the wrong side of the wound. And the .30-06 rifle round used is extensively documented by the US Army — it does not always produce a through-and-through wound. Wilson argues this is a well-studied projectile with well-understood behavior.
Andrew Wilson publicly offered Candace Owens $300,000 to debate her theory that Israel and TPUSA murdered Charlie Kirk. She refused. He argues that flat-earthers will debate anyone, but Kirk conspiracy theorists won't defend their claims under scrutiny.
Erika Kirk became the CEO of TPUSA while grieving her husband's murder in public, and now faces tens of thousands accusing her of conspiring to kill him. Andrew Wilson calls it mind-boggling psychological torture. The sparklers at the memorial weren't suspicious — they were a grieving widow doing her best in an impossible situation.
Joe Rogan and Andrew Wilson watch a bystander video of the Corey Ruiz police shooting in Madison, Wisconsin live on air. The video is so blurry they initially think a female officer fired the fatal shots. They later learn a male officer did, after Ruiz allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed officers. Their conclusion: you cannot have a hot take on a story you don't understand yet.
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