After being a reality show and sitcom star, Joe Rogan became the most successful podcaster in the world. Since fans have listened to Joe interview Kanye West, even though that was hard, he has become so rich that he turned down $100 million and fans want to know how much he pays his staff. One of the reasons why Joe is so popular is that he is willing to feud with other podcasters, call out Taylor Swift, rant about Jennifer Lopez, and mock The Big Bang Theory.
After being one of the best talk show hosts for years, which made him rich, Conan O’Brien became a podcaster like Joe. Even though he is willing to be scandalous, it is shocking that Joe called out Conan during an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience”.”
Joe Rogan Called Out The Coverage Of Conan O’Brien’s Podcast
For several years now, Joe Rogan has been considered the king of podcasts for good reason. After all, “The Joe Rogan Experience” has a long history of being the most downloaded podcast in the world. Not only that, even when “The Joe Rogan Experience” has been surpassed at times, there has never been any doubt that it is a behemoth.
As a result of how many people listen to “The Joe Rogan Experience,” there are millions of people who know a lot about his opinions. That said, there have been some comments that Joe has made that have mostly flown under the radar.
One example of Joe’s comments flying under the radar revolved around the beloved former talk show host, Conan O’Brien. Most fans have no idea that Joe once called out the coverage of Conan’s podcast.
After many years of Conan being a late-night talk show host, he decided to begin a new chapter of his career. As a part of Conan’s career reinvention, a November 2018 report from The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Conan was launching a podcast.
Shows Conan O’Brien Has Hosted | |
|---|---|
Show | Tenure |
Late Night with Conan O’Brien | 1993-2009 |
The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien | 2009-2010 |
Conan | 2010-2021 |
“Conan Needs A Friend” | 2018-Present |
After Conan’s podcast, “Conan Needs a Friend,” was launched, it became a major success. However, it was the coverage of Conan’s podcast that annoyed Joe enough that he called it out during an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
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In January 2020, Jimmy Dore made an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” During the resulting conversation, Jimmy brought up Conan’s talk show at the time, while the two men were discussing how unpopular talk shows had become, as can be seen in a YouTube clip.
While talking to Joe Rogan about late night talk shows, Jimmy Dore stated that his podcast was more popular than Conan O’Brien’s network show in the year 2020. “I mean, Conan O’Brien gets less views than my show.”
In response, Joe brought up an article from previous months that gave Conan’s podcast credit for the podcast boom.
There was a crazy article that Conan O’Brien is leading the way. Did you see that? Like, what are you talking about?
To Joe’s point, there is absolutely no doubt that Conan played no role in making podcasts become popular. After all, there were already many incredibly successful podcasts before Conan launched “Conan Needs a Friend.”
Alongside Conan O’Brien, “Conan Needs a Friend” is also hosted by Matt Gourley and Sona Movsesian. Sona is Conan’s longtime assistant who became popular with the talk show host’s fans. In fact, Sona was such a welcome part of Conan’s talk show that Collider published an article about her best appearances on the show.
Still, it seemed surprising when Joe went out of his way to call out how few listeners “Conan Needs a Friend” was receiving.
“He doesn’t even get good numbers on his podcast. No. Like, the actual downloads, I mean, he does alright, but he doesn’t do as good as, like, Dax Shepard or me or any of the people that are at the top of the heap in comedy.”
While still talking about Conan’s podcast, Joe dismissively mentioned the format “Conan Needs a Friend” has. “He’s interviewing famous people.”
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After extensively calling out Conan’s podcast, which the former talk show host is clearly proud of, Joe spoke positively about him as a person. After confirming that he went on his late night talk show, Joe complimented Conan’s personality.
Given how dismissively Joe spoke about Conan’s podcast, it is interesting to look at how successful “Conan Needs a Friend” has become.
As of February 2025, Podbay’s comedy podcast rankings show that “Conan Needs a Friend” is clearly a lot less successful than “The Joe Rogan Experience.” While Podbay‘s ranking doesn’t include download numbers, “The Joe Rogan Experience” tops the list and “Conan Needs a Friend” is in eighth place.
Still, “Conan Needs a Friend” becoming number eight on comedy charts is a huge success for the former talk show host. The ranking is also interesting to look at for another reason.
While talking about Conan’s podcast, Joe brought up that Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s “Armchair Expert” podcast was more successful than “Conan Needs a Friend.” However, as of February 2025 at least, “Conan Needs a Friend” is in the number eight slot on the comedy podcast chart and “Armchair Expert” is number nine.
What Inspired Joe Rogan To Call Out Conan O’Brien’s Podcast?
As Joe Rogan was talking about Conan O’Brien’s podcast, he brought up an article that set him off. As the conversation continued, Joe revealed that the article that gave Conan credit with making podcasts a big deal was published by Variety.
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In August 2019, Variety published an article about Conan O’Brien’s podcast. That article is titled, “How Conan O’Brien and Other Top Hosts Are Tapping Into the Podcast Revolution,” which seems like a perfectly reasonable headline. After all, Conan certainly has tapped into the popularity of podcasts to create a new career for himself.
With that headline in mind, it seems surprising that Joe was so annoyed by the article that he called out Conan’s podcast months later. However, there is more to the story that makes Joe’s remarks make a lot more sense.
If anyone looks up the same article on The Wayback Machine, it reveals that it originally had a different name. The original title of the article about Conan’s podcast pretty undeniably gave him far too much credit.
How Conan O’Brien and Other Top Hosts Are Driving the Podcast Revolution
As anyone familiar with the history of new media should already know, the so-called podcast revolution took place long before “Conan Needs a Friend” was launched. Since Joe actually did play a role in the popularization of podcasts, it makes sense that he would be annoyed that Conan was given that credit instead.
Joe Rogan
- Birthname
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Joseph J. Rogan
- Birthdate
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August 11, 1967
- Birthplace
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Newark, New Jersey, USA
- Height
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5’7
-
@joerogan
-
@joerogan
- Profession
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Host
- Net worth
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$120,000,000
- Source of Wealth
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Podcast, endorsements
- Nationality
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American
