Podtrac’s top ten featured the same lineup in June as May with the New York Times-produced The Daily sitting on top once again for the 57th consecutive month. The top 20 did however include a new entry: Lionsgate Sound’s Scamanda. It debuted at No. 17.
Hosted by journalist Charlie Webster, the limited-run Scamanda, which premiered May 17,is based on a true story about a dying San Jose, CA woman who blogged about her cancer journey. It proves to be inspirational and attracts readers around the world. But when an investigative producer was tipped off about a secret Amanda had guarded, it revealed a story that shocked the community. It turned out the woman had faked cancer for seven years to swindle people out of $105,513 in donations to help her pay for fake cancer treatments. Amanda Christine Riley was eventually arrested and in May 2022 she was sentenced to serve five years in prison.
Podtrac says in the top ten the movements were small as Wondery’s SmartLess and The Daily Wire’s The Ben Shapiro Show traded places. So did Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take and The Dan Bongino Show.
Podcast stalwarts This American Life and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me had the biggest slides during June. This American Life declined three spots to No. 14 while Wait Wait fell back two to No. 20.
Podtrac says NPR had four shows in the top 20 last month and Wondery had two while no other publisher had more than one entry in the ranker.
Overall, Podtrac says the average unique monthly listeners in the U.S. for the top 20 publishers it measures declined three percent between May and June. But on a year-to-year basis, June’s audience reach was up by three percent. Total global downloads for the top 20 publishers was flat month-to-month, although they were down three percent compared to a year ago.