It is not just cable news where the same guests appear over and over. A new report by Pew shows podcasters also frequently turn to the same people to appear on their shows. Just 22% of guests made more than one appearance on a top-ranked podcast in 2022. And those individuals made up half of all guest appearances on the shows examined in a new analysis. And Pew says 16 went on six or more top-ranked podcasts over the course of the year, accruing nearly 109 guest appearances between them.
“Many of these guests made appearances on the same podcasts. Most notably, 14 of these 16
individuals appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience at one time or another during the year,” the report says. “The most frequently appearing guests on top-ranked shows that brought a relatively large number of these guests include The Megyn Kelly Show, Candace Owens, and the Are You Garbage? podcast.”
Eighteen individuals made a total of 20 or more guest appearances on a top-ranked podcast in 2022, and these guests tended to come from one of two broad groupings. A dozen are sports journalists or commentators, including several who are affiliated with The Ringer or The Athletic. And five are directly affiliated with the conservative outlet The Daily Wire – including Michael Knowles, CEO Jeremy Boreing, Matt Walsh, Andrew Klavan and site co-founder Ben Shapiro. All but Boreing host a podcast published by The Daily Wire. Pew’s report says people affiliated with The Daily Wire are especially prolific podcast guests and often appear on each other’s shows, produced by the site.
Pew’s guest data analysis shows that there were also several figures from the entertainment industry, such as Andrew Schulz, Ari Shaffir, Bert Kreischer and Judd Apatow, on the list of more frequently appearing guests. There are also frequently appearing scientists like Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Anthony Fauci, and journalists including New York Times columnist Maggie Haberman and Matt Taibbi.
“Our research has shed light on the variety of topics and approaches within the podcasting landscape,” said Galen Stocking, a Senior Computational Social Scientist at Pew. “Here, we found that most top-ranked podcasts are bringing on guests, and often from a wide range of professional backgrounds. This can add to the perspectives heard on each podcast.”
True Crime Is Guest-Free Zone
Pew’s analysis does show that some shows are more likely to have guests, including Sports, Entertainment, Politics and Self-Help podcasts, while Pew describes True Crime as a guest-free zone. “About four-in-ten top-ranked true crime podcasts had no guests in 2022, and just 4% of true crime podcasts featured guests regularly,” it says.
In contrast, News podcasts often had guests with about a third (31%) doing so regularly and 13% almost always having a guest on the show. Pew says that is much higher than the three percent share for podcasts that don’t focus on news.
The findings are based on a review of 24,000 episodes published by 434 top-ranked podcasts in 2022, which tracked a total of 7,212 guests. For all the guest repeats, Pew says most podcasts aren’t bringing the same guests on over and over. More than 99% of all guests only appeared once on any top podcast in 2022.
And overall, Pew says 49% of podcasts only occasionally had guests during 2022, with 22% regularly featuring them. About a quarter (24%) never had guests, while 5% always did.
Download the full report HERE.
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