Meghan McCain merges YouTube show with podcast as she faces shrinking audience
McCain, the veteran media pundit and former 'View' co-host, announced earlier this month that she would be merging her twice-weekly 'Happy Hour' show with her 'Citizen McCain' podcast and ditching the former's title.
'Our podcast is going to be our live show on 2way like we have been doing — just now with our original Citizen McCain name because quite frankly all of you like it and the brand is already on our TikTok, socials, etc,' McCain wrote on her Substack newsletter page.
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3 Meghan McCain is rebranding her newly launched podcast and folding it into her other streaming show due to paltry viewership numbers.
2WAY/YouTube
McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, launched 'Happy Hour' earlier this year after she was signed by 2way, a media startup founded by Mark Halperin, the former MSNBC personality who was forced out of his job due to allegations of sexual misconduct during his stint at ABC News.
The shift comes amid underwhelming viewership numbers for 'Happy Hour,' which launched in February.
Its most recent full episode before the transition, which features an interview with Fox News media critic Joe Concha, garnered just over 4,300 views on YouTube.
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By comparison, a two-minute clip from an earlier episode, headlined 'Joe Biden's Staff 'All Hated Kamala Harris',' is the channel's most-watched McCain segment, racking up nearly 81,000 views since February.
The show will continue airing live on YouTube Mondays and Wednesdays, but will move from 5 p.m. Eastern Time to noon Eastern Time. Episodes will also be available on Apple and Spotify.
While McCain assured her audience that 'NOTHING about the content is changing,' she acknowledged the show's winding trajectory.
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'This journey with Citizen McCain has been a rocky one with different partnerships,' she wrote, but added that she and co-host Miranda Wilkins are 'very confident' in their partnership with 2way.
3 McCain launched her 'Happy Hour' YouTube show earlier this year after she signed with 2way, a media startup founded by political journalist Mark Halperin.
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
The new version of 'Citizen McCain' premiered May 5, with McCain stating during the broadcast that 'Happy Hour is no more.'
Despite the reboot, viewership remains modest. None of the full-length episodes have surpassed 5,000 views on YouTube, and the 'Citizen McCain' channel counts just 2,650 subscribers as of Thursday.
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Moreover, new content is being posted exclusively on the 'Citizen McCain' YouTube page — not on 2way's main channel, which last featured McCain's content on April 30.
Halperin's 2way network, promoted earlier this year as a hub for bipartisan political discourse, has had its own struggles gaining traction.
The channel averages about 83,000 daily views on YouTube and has 78,400 subscribers, according to Social Blade.
Since launching, 2way has released over 2,200 videos, totaling roughly 22.8 million views.
3 McCain is folding her 'Happy Hour' show into her original podcast titled 'Citizen McCain.'
@CitizenMcCain/YouTube
McCain's decision to work with Halperin drew attention given her prior criticism of him following sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.
Halperin, who was accused by more than a dozen women, denied the allegations but lost prominent roles at MSNBC and Showtime.
McCain told the British publication Independent that her views had evolved.
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'With age comes wisdom and different perspectives on people,' she said.
'I am now a 40-year-old mother of two… Like Mark, at this point in my life I believe in giving people the presumption of grace and forgiveness as I would like it in return.'
Halperin has since reestablished a media presence, contributing to Newsmax and hosting a podcast on Megyn Kelly's new media venture.
Representatives for McCain and Halperin did not respond to requests for comment.
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