Before hosting a Fox News primetime show, Laura Ingraham was a famous radio host, often referred to as “the most-listened-to woman in America on political talk radio.” But late last year, citing “family life,” the conservative pundit dropped her three-hour-long daily show for a podcast.
A year later, that podcast seems to have quietly disappeared. But Ingraham is still charging listeners for it.
Upon launch, the podcast—produced by PodcastOne, a division of Courtside Entertainment Group, which had aired her radio show since 2013—was set to broadcast three times a week and the show’s description leaned heavily into Ingraham’s status as a conservative talk-radio icon: “You loved her hugely successful radio show and now you can join Laura Ingraham three days a week as she covers politics, pop culture and media bias. And don’t worry—as always, she'll still bring you hard-hitting guests and take your calls.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Nine months into the show’s existence, Ingraham’s podcast schedule began to slow down: Her broadcast on Sept. 30, featuring former House Speaker Newt Gingrich discussing impeachment, appears to have been her final one.
And yet, on her official website, Ingraham has continued advertising and selling auto-renewable $49.95/year subscriptions for a podcast that apparently no longer exists.
A source close to Ingraham told The Daily Beast in mid-October that they were informed an announcement about the podcast was imminent and that the show would be “coming back.” However, weeks later, no such announcement has been made. It is now more than two months since the last new episode.
Ingraham and her podcast’s executive producer did not respond to The Daily Beast’s multiple requests for comment.
While there has yet to be an official announcement about the apparent end of her podcasting career, cached versions of Ingraham’s Twitter bio, reviewed via the Wayback Machine, reveal that at some point on or around Oct. 11, she quietly removed any reference to the podcast.
And despite the silence from Ingraham and her camp, a number of her fans have recently taken to social media to grouse about the lack of new content.
“Laura, can you please make an announcement regarding your podcast? Is it going to come back? Thank you,” wrote one polite Twitter user.
Another listener, noticing that the Fox News star has continued to charge a subscription fee, pointedly asked the commentator: “Where is the Laura Ingraham Podcast? You just disappeared. Was it poor performance? Is there another reason? You’re still selling access to it on your website. Don’t want to get ripped off.”
And despite apparently lasting less than a year, Ingraham’s podcast was a source of controversy for the Fox News star. In June, she sparked intense backlash when she roundly dismissed reparations for slavery by proclaiming: “We won, you lost, that’s that. That’s just the way it is.”
And a month before that, the Trump-boosting host told her listeners that an episode was sponsored by the president’s re-election campaign, seemingly running afoul of Fox’s unenforced rule that the network “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events.”
At the time, the cable channel pointed out that Ingraham’s “podcast is run independently of Fox News and we have nothing to do with its sponsorships.”
A Fox News spokesperson also used that same reasoning when asked about Ingraham ditching her podcast, telling The Daily Beast that it “is a question for Laura’s podcast folks, given it’s not associated with FOX News.”
PodcastOne executives, however, did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
UPDATE: Following the publication of this article, PodcastOne told The Hollywood Reporter, and later confirmed to the Daily Beast, that Ingraham’s podcast is, indeed, done. “Laura’s deal with PodcastOne expired,” the company told reporter Jeremy Barr.
“Our podcast was always available free of charge and we are not aware of this being part of any paid package,” PodcastOne additionally told THR. Ingraham’s website, however, still offers a monthly or yearly subscription service featuring commercial-free access to the now-defunct podcast.
