If you’ve been listening or watching The Megyn Kelly Show the last couple of weeks, you have likely heard Megyn mention that she was getting closer to reaching one million subscribers on her YouTube channel. On Monday evening, it happened.
One million subscribers is a milestone for many reasons. Megyn has joked that one of them is that she’ll receive a plaque that her kids will think is cool. But, in all seriousness, it speaks to the resonance of the content and the importance of independent voices in media. To celebrate the achievement, Megyn shared a special YouTube video thanking her subscribers for their support and reflecting on the evolution of The Megyn Kelly Show.
The Origins of The Megyn Kelly Show
As Megyn shared, having her “little show, which is now not so little” reach the one million-subscriber mark is “a big deal” – and one that she didn’t necessarily see coming when The Megyn Kelly Show first began as an audio-only podcast some two and a half years ago.
The podcast debuted in September 2020 after much contemplation. “I was sitting on my couch post-NBC thinking, ‘My industry is absolutely disgusting. It’s a dirty, toxic, gross industry, and I don’t know if I want to go back into it,’” she recalled.
The historic events of that tumultuous year, however, gave her the clarity she needed. “Then, we had the COVID craziness, we had this summer post-George Floyd, and I was like, ‘I cannot sit on the couch, as comfy as it is – this is not where I belong,” Megyn shared. She knew she needed to “get back out there” and use her voice. “I’m not happy unless I’m fighting for what I know is right,” she added.
The podcast served as an experiment of sorts. Having built her career in front of the camera, Megyn said she was curious to see how people would respond. “I thought, ‘Do you think they’ll listen to me if they don’t see like the Fox-ified hair and makeup and all,’” she wondered. “I just kind of wanted to see, and the show took off, did really well, became one of the top podcasts”
Megyn admitted that she “proved something” to herself with that and, in doing so, realized she was ready to return to the medium she loved – video. “We launched YouTube right at the same time that we partnered up with SiriusXM,” she recalled, adding that SiriusXM offered the unique opportunity to broadcast live while also creating a podcast and YouTube show. “I like being live – you’re out there without a net and there’s only so much we could change even if we wanted to because it’s already aired live,” she shared. “You’re stuck with what you’ve done, and I like that.”
All told, The Megyn Kelly Show podcast will turn three in September, while the SiriusXM and YouTube editions of the program will be two.
The Value of Independent Media
Hitting one million subscribers means many things, but Megyn said it – most importantly – “means the show is resonating.” It also speaks to the power of independent voices in today’s media landscape. “It means I don’t need corporate media in order to get my reporting out there, get my voice and your voice out there, to talk about the stories that we talked about,” she shared.
Those stories include hot button topics like “pushback on the COVID mania,” “pushback on the [Black Lives Matter] nonsense,” and “pushback on the gender madness that we’re all being subjected to right now,” Megyn explained.
The platform also allows her to feature “people who nobody else will talk about,” like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Even people like Joe Rogan wouldn’t give him a platform because there are certain people deemed too toxic to touch,” she explained. “We found a way to do it, and that four hour-interview lived on all platforms, it did not get censored anywhere – including on YouTube – and we’re very proud of that.” You can watch part I and part II of the interview.
The Megyn Kelly Show bills itself as the home of “open, honest, and provocative conversations,” and Megyn believes that is what has been the key to its success. “That’s what got us to a million,” she said. “That’s what got people interested in the show.”
Building an Audience
One of the things that makes the journey to one million subscribers so rewarding is that it was reached organically. “I didn’t pay a bunch of money to get fake subscribers,” Megyn noted. “Each one of you is real because we built the following brick by brick, person by person, subscriber by subscriber, follower by follower.”
What she has learned over the last 18 months is that her audience is wider and broader than she ever realized. A few months ago, Megyn said she attended a “big muckety muck media conference” and met a prominent Hollywood-type. “This very famous guy who you would know – happens to be a black gay man who is a big Hollywood person,” she shared. “And he pulled me aside and said, ‘Megyn, I’m your number one fan. I love what you’re doing right now… It’s not that I agree with everything you say, but I love the way you say it. And I love it that you’re not afraid to say it.’”
He also told Megyn that he is not alone and forwards her videos to his friends who also love the content. When Megyn inquired as to why they didn’t look it up themselves, he said it was because they are afraid of the backlash they may receive. “I just think it was kind of funny,” Megyn said. “ I’ll take you however I can get you – if we need to do the forward system, let’s do that because we need to get these voices that I have on the program out to as many people as possible.”
Ultimately, it’s all about reach. “The more people who do the follow, do the subscribe, repost the piece and then start repeating the messaging, the more liberated we’ll become, the more the sane will defeat the insane, the good will defeat the evil,” she explained. “That’s our army that we’re building.” That coalition “isn’t left or right,” she added. “It really is a right or wrong situation – and we’re on the right.”