Layoffs at Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire hit Nashville headquarters hardest

Hans Blaster · May 20, 2026

DaisyDay said:
For some reason, the OP insists that there are no credible moderates, but dismisses any that do exist.

He does seem rather desperate to demonstrate the virtue of the moderates while disparaging partisans. It must be hard to be a moderate libertarian who knows everything.

DaisyDay said:
Heather Cox Richardson is another moderate commentator.

I have mostly stopped seeing or paying attention to her stuff, but that's probably because there is so much of it I don't have time to dive in. I don't know if she would classify as a moderate (seems more like a liberal) on the general political scale and I genuinely have no idea what her positions on Israel and their wars is. Most of what I heard was before the Hamas attacks/Gaza war/Iran war things happened.

DaisyDay · May 20, 2026

Hans Blaster said:
He does seem rather desperate to demonstrate the virtue of the moderates while disparaging partisans. It must be hard to be a moderate libertarian who knows everything.

I have mostly stopped seeing or paying attention to her stuff, but that's probably because there is so much of it I don't have time to dive in. I don't know if she would classify as a moderate (seems more like a liberal) on the general political scale and I genuinely have no idea what her positions on Israel and their wars is. Most of what I heard was before the Hamas attacks/Gaza war/Iran war things happened.

A moderate liberal. The OP seems to want only Hasan Piker to have any influence on the left.

Hans Blaster · May 20, 2026

DaisyDay said:
A moderate liberal. The OP seems to want only Hasan Piker to have any influence on the left.

Silly me. I was thinking of "moderate" like "centrist". The centrist propaganda of this thread must have gotten to me.

I tried search for some media examples with reasonable search engine prompts, but I keep getting articles that are just propaganda.

iluvatar5150 · May 20, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
I didn't say there weren't credible moderates out there in the wild... Obviously across the streaming podcast space there are tens of thousands of personalities at every granular part of the spectrum.

I'm suggesting that none of them are building a noteworthy following in terms of being an "establishment escape hatch". (certainly not compared to the more polarizing personalities)...and certainly not to a degree where they're going to build a politics-shaping level of a following.

The Michigan senate race will be interesting as it'll be a glimpse into whether or not Piker has amassed enough of a following to start playing "kingmaker" of sorts

MSN

MSN

Still not paying attention to Ezra Klein, I take it?

He's very moderate in terms of temperment, skews left on policy but more as a technocrat than an ideologue, has been very critical of the DNC and Israel, and has been shaping politics to a pretty significant degree the last couple years. He was one of the first (if not the first) high profile pundits to call for Biden to bow out of the race and his "abundance" project has been taken up so gleefully by center-left politicians around the world that it's a little embarassing.

ThatRobGuy · May 20, 2026

iluvatar5150 said:
Still not paying attention to Ezra Klein, I take it?

He's very moderate in terms of temperment, skews left on policy but more as a technocrat than an ideologue, has been very critical of the DNC and Israel, and has been shaping politics to a pretty significant degree the last couple years. He was one of the first (if not the first) high profile pundits to call for Biden to bow out of the race and his "abundance" project has been taken up so gleefully by center-left politicians around the world that it's a little embarassing.

I still listen to him somewhat regularly, but his audience numbers have been dropping in favor of further left figures.

He started getting some flak from some on the further progressive wing when he said some favorable things about Charlie Kirk after he got shot.

I think there's a growing body of evidence that people are looking less for "nuanced voice of reason" or "nice guy", and looking more for "counter-puncher" type personalities.

Ezra recently got disrupted by protestors who presumably were on his half of the spectrum merely because on his show, he'll have people from the opposing side on for a chat.

protesters interrupting Klein’s event, holding a sign that says “Nazi normalizer.”

“Why do you think I deny what’s going on in Gaza? I think it’s destruction, apartheid, subjugation,” Klein said.

“Buddy, talk to me. Turn around. I am right here,” he said, as a protester shouted at the audience with his back toward Klein, accusing Klein of backing “genocidal ideology.”

The protester refused to engage, shouting, “Ezra Klein, you’re a liar, you set Palestine on fire.”

“I don’t think you know what I think,” Klein responded.

“I know exactly what you think,” the protester claimed.

“Then why don’t you want to talk to me about it?” Klein said.

“You like genocide,” the protester shouted.

Outside the event, several dozen activists chanted against Klein and the college while beating a drum

“Sarah Lawrence, we know you, you invite fascists too,” they chanted.

The campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine had opposed Klein’s event, calling him a “liberal Zionist mouthpiece” and a “fascist-normalizing ruling class darling.”

If Ezra Klein (who I would suggest is more left than center-left) isn't "left enough" for some of them, then it's safe to say they're looking for something a little more radical (like Piker)

ThatRobGuy · May 20, 2026

DaisyDay said:
A moderate liberal. The OP seems to want only Hasan Piker to have any influence on the left.

Quite the opposite, I'd prefer for the moderate liberals to have more influence, then I could vote for them again.

It's not that "I want" Hasan to have more influence, it's that he is having more influence.

As noted (both in this thread and previous ones), he's the top political streamer in the country (with no close 2nd's... 2nd place is Tim Pool who only has a 3rd of Piker's audience)

He has millions of social media followers and millions of subscribers...has racked up well over a billion views, and his election night live coverage outperformed CNN, MSNBC, and CBS.

It's not that I want him to be anything... The marketplace of ideas is making him into the force that he is.

iluvatar5150 · May 20, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
I still listen to him somewhat regularly, but his audience numbers have been dropping in favor of further left figures.

Source?

If Ezra Klein (who I would suggest is more left than center-left) isn't "left enough" for some of them, then it's safe to say they're looking for something a little more radical (like Piker)

It's not that he's not far enough left for them. It's that they're reactionary morons who don't know what they're talking about. He's done multiple episodes very explicitly calling out what Israel is doing as genocide. Calling him a zionist who likes genocide is like calling Trump pro-immigrant. It's not a matter of being too right/left; it's a matter of being stupid.

ThatRobGuy · May 20, 2026

iluvatar5150 said:
Source?

YouTube engagement.

If you leverage a wayback machine (there are a couple), you can go back in time and see how many views creators were getting on their content.

So this was a snapshot of "recent uploads" (uploaded within the previous 2 weeks), as they appeared on the page April of 2024.

Here is a snapshot of recent uploads today

Do you see a slight difference there in terms of views?

iluvatar5150 said:
It's not that he's not far enough left for them. It's that they're reactionary morons who don't know what they're talking about. He's done multiple episodes very explicitly calling out what Israel is doing as genocide. Calling him a zionist who likes genocide is like calling Trump pro-immigrant. It's not a matter of being too right/left; it's a matter of being stupid.

They may be stupid, but ultimately it's a sign that they don't want someone who will sit down and have an hours long, long-form discussion with a conservative, they want someone who will metaphorically punch the conservatives in the nose.

I don't think all of them are being stupid, I think a lot of them have decided that they're done with the "let's meet in the middle, be civil" nice guy routine and want something more aggressive.

iluvatar5150 · May 20, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
YouTube engagement.

If you leverage a wayback machine (there are a couple), you can go back in time and see how many views creators were getting on their content.

So this was a snapshot of "recent uploads" (uploaded within the previous 2 weeks), as they appeared on the page April of 2024.
View attachment 379576

Here is a snapshot of recent uploads today
View attachment 379577

Do you see a slight difference there in terms of views?

Sure, but you're only looking at one platform. He's available on multiple and I'd be surprised if youtube was the predominant one.

They've also changed some stuff regarding access to the videos and the way they swap around and workshop titles. I don't know how that applies to youtube, but I can imagine a scenario where it undercuts some of the stats you're looking at.

They may be stupid, but ultimately it's a sign that they don't want someone who will sit down and have an hours long, long-form discussion with a conservative, they want someone who will metaphorically punch the conservatives in the nose.

There are always
I don't think all of them are being stupid, I think a lot of them have decided that they're done with the "let's meet in the middle, be civil" nice guy routine and want something more aggressive.
[/QUOTE]

They're both. Part of the reason they're aggressive is because they're stupid and refuse to listen to others.

ThatRobGuy · May 21, 2026

iluvatar5150 said:
Sure, but you're only looking at one platform. He's available on multiple and I'd be surprised if youtube was the predominant one.

They've also changed some stuff regarding access to the videos and the way they swap around and workshop titles. I don't know how that applies to youtube, but I can imagine a scenario where it undercuts some of the stats you're looking at.

As far as I'm aware, his two primary platforms are YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

While the YT stuff was touched on above, as far as Apple podcasts goes.

Last year, he was putting up some solid numbers

Apple Podcasts unveils the most popular shows and trends of 2025

Today, Apple shared the most popular podcasts of 2025, with year-end charts localized for listeners in nearly 100 countries and regions.

www.apple.com

(in the top 10 overall, and had some episodes that made it into the weekly top 5's)

As for right now:

Apple Podcasts Top Charts

The most popular Podcasts in United States

podcasts.apple.com

He's sitting at #36.

The snap shot from last April from Apple's "top shows"

And now:

Podfollow Charts - The Ezra Klein Show chart positions on Apple in United States for All Podcasts

A tool to connect podcasts with their listeners. Directing listeners to the correct listening experience for their device.

podfollow.com

And his rank over the past month has fluctuated between the #20's, and has gotten as low as the #80's

Point of reference, Ben's Shapiro (the subject of the OP) is struggling to the degree that he's having to lay off his staff. And he's several slots above Klein in the rankings. Obviously the business models are different as Ezra hasn't built an entire empire around his show that he needs to financially supported, but none the less, going from consistently being in the top 10 in 2025 (and locking up a top 10 finish in multiple categories for 2025 overall), to hovering between #20 and #80 would be indicative of a decline in content engagement and interest.

Stopped_lurking · May 21, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
"established" is becoming less and less relevant as old media (and people seen as offshoots of old media) are becoming a tad obsolete.

The numbers would suggest that Piker already has a bigger audience (which means the market has spoken to a degree)

Zeteo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Founder Mehdi Hasan
Industry News
Revenue $3.9 million (2025)
Employees 9 editors, 14 contributors
URL zeteo.com
Users 450,000+ subscribers
Current status Active

Hasan Piker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

YouTube information
Channel

HasanAbi

Years active 2018–present
Genres

Political commentary

reaction

gaming

Followers 3.1 million
Channel

HasanAbi

Subscribers 1.87 million
Views 1.06 billion

And an additional factoid:
Piker was given credentialed access and livestreamed at the 2024 Democratic National Convention,[51] and his 2024 election night coverage stream had 7.5 million viewers.[52]

AI disclaimer on this this next part... if you want to see how Piker's election night stream stacked up against mainstream media outlets:
2024 Election Night — viewers, 8–11 p.m. ET

Fox News: ~10.3 million The Hollywood Reporter

Hasan Piker: ~7.5 million

MSNBC: ~6.0 million The Hollywood Reporter

ABC: ~5.9 million The Hollywood Reporter

NBC: ~5.5 million The Hollywood Reporter

CNN: ~5.1 million The Hollywood Reporter

CBS: ~3.6 million The Hollywood Reporter

You are comparing apples to pears, the tv numbers are for the primetime slot (according to your link). Hasan Piker's numbers are over the course of the night (according to the transcript below). Hasan Piker also caters to an international audience, so you are going to rack up people dropping in just because of time zones. How many viewers did watch the tv stations broadcasts over streaming platforms, or watch some clips of it from the tv stations during the night?

Transcript taken from here https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburne...mp-seized-online-culture-transcript-1.7382539

"JP: On election day, Hasan was the only non-conservative to feature as one of the ten most watched streamers, pulling in 7.5 million live viewers over the course of the night. That, for comparison, is the same number as CNN's election broadcast on television. Hasan has been talking for a long time about the radicalization of young men and the viewing habits of young people -- the fact that many have drifted rightwards and what that appeal is fundamentally about. Now that this world may have helped crown the next president of the United States, we wanted to talk to Hasan and try to demystify this cultural alliance between influencers and the conservative movement, and why the left seems to have no real answer for it."

According to this (https://twitchtracker.com/hasanabi/statistics) he had a peak number of viewers of 357084, but it was in relation to the 2024 US presidential election. So it is a quite misleading way to compare the tv numbers and his stream numbers.

ThatRobGuy said:
So Piker drew a bigger audience than ABC, NBC, CNN, and CBS.

Zeteo's 2024 election night stream drew about 800k. (barely over 1/10th of Piker's numbers)

So it's clear that people are moving away from establishment media in favor of alternatives, and the numbers above speak for themselves with regards to which types of content they're gravitating towards.

The same dynamic is presenting itself on the right as well. While "old media" landscape on the left is obviously a lot more fractured (being spread across 5 outlets), whereas conservative old media is consolidated under Fox News, Dan Bongino and Steven Crowder (combined) put up numbers on their election live streams on Rumble that rivaled Fox's numbers

Founder	Mehdi Hasan
Industry	News
Revenue	$3.9 million (2025)
Employees	9 editors, 14 contributors
URL	zeteo.com
Users	450,000+ subscribers
Current status	Active

YouTube information
Channel	HasanAbi
Years active	2018–present
Genres	Political commentary reaction gaming
Followers	3.1 million
Channel	HasanAbi
Subscribers	1.87 million
Views	1.06 billion

Layoffs at Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire hit Nashville headquarters hardest

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