The Mean Girl podcast is being shown the door at Barstool Sports, as founder Dave Portnoy says the company has opted not to offer new contracts to podcast hosts Alex Bennett and Jordyn Woodruff. “They’re done,” he said during an appearance on the Barstool Radio podcast Tuesday.
The decision came after Bennett and Woodruff were out of the office and were not able to serve as judges at the Barstool OnlyFans pageant. Portnoy, who has told staff members that were not part of a big layoff earlier this month that they would need to pull more weight, was not pleased. “I was not happy with everything going on around here with layoffs and the speeches I’ve given,” he said, adding, “To be honest, based on some of the decisions, maybe they weren’t planning on staying anyways.”
The split appears to be on good terms. In a post on social media, Woodruff thanked Portnoy and CEO Erika Ayers Badan for their two-year run. “Will be forever grateful for all the opportunities at Barstool Sports,” she wrote in the post.
Launched two years ago, Mean Girl features Bennett and Woodruff talking about sex, friendship, struggles, moving to a new city, and growing up.
Portnoy said he had no issues with the pair taking their podcast elsewhere. “It’s like, am I going to give them the [podcast] IP, which I’m inclined to do. I don’t really have a grudge and if they can go do something on their own, probably more power to them,” he said.
This month Barstool Sports laid-off a quarter of its staff to address the $16.1 million loss that Barstool had during the first six months of the year. Portnoy, who bought back control of the company in August, said he would also be more hands-on in the day-to-day operations of the company while it works toward regaining profitability.
With a lineup of nearly 100 podcasts, Podtrac says Barstool had 7.2 million unique U.S. listeners to its podcasts during August with 35.8 million downloads.