But Growth Slows for the Extremist Program
“Candace,” the daily program from the extremist Candace Owens, ranked for the third consecutive quarter as the fastest-growing right-wing podcast based on TheRighting’s analysis of Castbox data. “Candace” ended the second quarter with 74,954 subscribers compared to 47,322 at the conclusion of the first quarter for a 58% year-over-year (YOY) increase. It was far more than any other right-wing podcast.
Five other right-wing podcasts generated double-digit YOY percentage increases: “The Megyn Kelly Show,” “The Tucker Carlson Show,” “The Charlie Kirk Show,” “The Matt Walsh Show” and “The Ben Shapiro Show.”
Top Q2 Right-Wing Podcasts by YOY % Growth
(percentage growth of new subscribers on the Castbox platform, Q2 2026 v Q2 2025)
–“Candace,” 58%
–“The Megyn Kelly Show,” 39%
–“The Charlie Kirk Show,” 35%
Top Q2 Right-Wing Podcasts by Subscriber Growth
(total number of new subscribers added on the Castbox platform, Q2 2026 v Q2 2025):
–“The Ben Shapiro Show,” 144,648 new subscribers
–“The Megyn Kelly Show,” 60,119 new subscribers
–“The Tucker Carlson Show,” 36,415
TheRighting found evidence that remarkable growth of “Candace” may be slowing. The program added only 875 subscribers from March 31, 2026, to June 30, 2026. That was down dramatically from the 3,371 subscribers gained in the quarter ending March 31. In the past year, “Candace” experienced the highest quarter-to-quarter growth from September 31, 2025, to December 31, 2025, when it grew by 13,784 subscribers for a 24% increase.
“The declining numbers of new subscribers suggest that audiences are finally beginning to turn away from her outrageously offensive commentary,” said Howard Polskin, President, TheRighting. “Although she still has a huge base of subscribers, it’s likely that extraordinary growth may have peaked.”
The number of subscribers to “The Charlie Kirk Show” dropped by 880 subscribers between March 31 and June 30 of this year. It was the only right-wing podcast to register a subscriber loss during that period.
Methodology
This report is based on data that is updated daily from the podcast app Castbox, which is the fourth most popular app on the podcast-hosting platform Buzzsprout. Castbox represents 3.1% of all podcasts that Buzzsprout serves. No other leading podcast app besides Castbox makes its data publicly available. TheRighting’s top 20 chart only lists programs that have had new podcasts available on the Castbox platform since January 1, 2023.
