Edison Q3 top 50: Dumb Blonde jumps 32 places into the top 20
Dumb Blonde is the biggest mover in the new Edison Research at SSRS ranking of the 50 most-listened-to podcasts in the US. Bunnie Xo’s show climbs from No. 49 to No. 17 in the Q3 2026 list, its first time in the top 20. The Pat McAfee Show debuts in the top 25, and Pardon My Take and Kill Tony move in alongside it.
The top three did not move. The Joe Rogan Experience, Crime Junkie and The Daily finish first, second and third, as they did in the second quarter.
Edison ranks shows by reach among weekly podcast listeners aged 13 and older, surveyed through the third quarter of 2026, and compares each position with Q2. That makes it a measure of how many people heard a show in a typical week, so a rise means more listeners found the show.
The top 10 for Q3 2026
| Q3 | Show | From | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Joe Rogan Experience | Joe Rogan | 1 |
| 2 | Crime Junkie | Audiochuck | 2 |
| 3 | The Daily | The New York Times | 3 |
| 4 | Call Her Daddy | Alex Cooper | 4 |
| 5 | SmartLess | Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett | 5 |
| 6 | New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce | Wondery | 7 |
| 7 | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von | Theo Von | 8 |
| 8 | Dateline NBC | NBC News | 6 |
| 9 | Rotten Mango | Stephanie Soo | 13 |
| 10 | The Breakfast Club | The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts | 11 |
For comparison, our own Top 100 has The Daily at No. 1, Crime Junkie at No. 2 and Rogan at No. 4 this week. Rotten Mango is the one top-10 show that moved more than two places at Edison, up four from No. 13.
Why Dumb Blonde, McAfee and Kill Tony climbed
Edison attaches a line of explanation to each of its headline movers. Bunnie Xo made news in August when she posted, then removed, an episode about her divorce from the musician Jelly Roll. Pat McAfee released a country rock album in August, shortly before the NFL season, and it was widely criticized. The Pardon My Take crew published a tenth-anniversary book called Pardon My Book. Kill Tony went back to Madison Square Garden for back-to-back nightly specials.
Attention, even the unflattering kind, and all four were already in the top 50 to begin with.
| Show | Q2 | Q3 | What Edison says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dumb Blonde | 49 | 17 | Comedy, from Bunnie DeFord. First time in the top 20. |
| The Pat McAfee Show | 38 | 22 | Sports, with ESPN. Debuts in the top 25. |
| Pardon My Take | 32 | 23 | Sports, from Barstool Sports. Breaks into the top 25. |
| Kill Tony | 33 | 24 | Comedy, Golden Pony Productions. Breaks into the top 25. |
| Huberman Lab | 22 | 13 | Health and fitness, Scicomm Media. |
| The Ramsey Show | 41 | 27 | Business, Ramsey Network. |
| Up First from NPR | 45 | 28 | News, NPR. |
The shows that slipped
The biggest falls are led by two politics shows.
- Pod Save America, No. 14 to No. 26. Still No. 3 in our Top 100.
- The MeidasTouch Podcast, No. 12 to No. 20. News, from the MeidasTouch Network.
- Stuff You Should Know, No. 9 to No. 15. The iHeartPodcasts staple drops out of the top 10.
- 48 Hours, No. 24 to No. 40. True crime, from 48 Hours.
- Planet Money, No. 18 to No. 50, the last place on the list. Business, from NPR.
Pod Save America’s listeners here are not going anywhere. Reach surveys like Edison’s measure how many Americans in total heard the show that week, and we think a midterm news cycle spreads that attention across more shows.
Nine new entries, nine out
Nine shows carry a NEW tag against the Q2 list. Edison singles out five of them as first-time entrants to the top 50: StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Club 520, Straight Shooter with Stephen A., Hang Out with Sean Hannity and Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.
- No. 36, StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson (science, from Neil deGrasse Tyson).
- No. 37, Nightcap (sports, Shay Shay Media and Playmaker), joining Club Shay Shay from the same stable, which fell to No. 33.
- No. 39, Club 520 (sports, iHeartPodcasts and The Volume).
- No. 42, Distractible (comedy).
- No. 43, Straight Shooter with Stephen A. (Stephen A. Smith and SiriusXM).
- No. 44, Hang Out with Sean Hannity (Fox News Media).
- No. 46, No Jumper (music).
- No. 47, Smosh Reads Reddit Stories (comedy, Smosh).
- No. 49, Impaulsive with Logan Paul (comedy, Fanatics).
Out this time, with their Q2 rank:
- Serial (Q2: No. 29), from Serial Productions and The New York Times.
- The Tucker Carlson Show (Q2: No. 36), Tucker Carlson Network.
- The Rest Is History (Q2: No. 39), Goalhanger.
- Lex Fridman Podcast (Q2: No. 42).
- The Megyn Kelly Show (Q2: No. 44), SiriusXM.
- The Why Files (Q2: No. 46).
- The Bulwark Podcast (Q2: No. 47), The Bulwark.
- Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce (Q2: No. 48), Wave.
- How I Built This with Guy Raz (Q2: No. 50), which left NPR for Vox Media at the start of October.
Two of those exits look different from where we sit. The Rest Is History is No. 15 in our Top 100 and Serial is No. 74, so both still have a US audience here even if their weekly reach dipped below Edison’s cut-off. True Crime with Kendall Rae is the one to watch for January: Edison says it climbed 44 places to No. 55, just outside the list.
The full list of 50, with each show’s Q2 position, is in the Edison release. Dumb Blonde, the quarter’s big winner, has new episodes on its PlayPodcast page.
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