Kylie Kelce is the latest member of her family to launch a hit podcast, and it took her no time at all to find an audience.
As the wife of Philadelphia Eagles legend turned ESPN star Jason Kelce, she was already in the spotlight before she debuted Not Gonna Lie in partnership with Wave Sports + Entertainment. But few expected she could beat out the king of podcasting, even for a week.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Kelce opened up on the early success of her podcast and the reaction to it, explaining that the show was designed precisely for moments like this.
“I couldn’t care less about the charts,” Kelce told reporter Jessica Testa.
Nevertheless, Wave told Testa that it counted 25 million combined audio downloads and social media views for Not Gonna Lie.
“I’m focused on putting out content that people like to consume,” Kelce added. “If that puts us there for a week, cool. If it puts us there for longer than that, cool. But I also don’t need to feed any conflict that’s created by it.”
Setting aside that “audio downloads and social media views” is a bizarre metric by which to measure a podcast, Kelce has shattered expectations. Even before Taylor Swift started dating Kelce’s brother-in-law, NFL executives and analysts insisted there was a growing audience of women football fans. Kelce’s early success would seem to prove that.
As for the “battle” with Rogan, it would be a silly one to fight. In podcasting, there is Rogan and then there is everyone else.
But one place Kelce is willing to oppose the Spotify host and UFC announcer is on the political spectrum. While Rogan endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, Kelce made it clear to the Times that she goes the other way.
Kelce told the Times that she aspires to interview Democratic stars like Michelle Obama and Josh Shapiro. She added that her politics “aggressively lean left.”
If you are going to be the first NFL star’s wife to launch a major podcast and call it Not Gonna Lie, these are the types of things you say.
So far, people are responding to it.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.