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Meet the 'Ruthless Podcast' Fellas
The "Ruthless Podcast" has filled a massive void in the political media landscape for six years, and now the popular show is coming to you live on Fox News Channel.
The Fellas — Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, John Ashbrook and Michael Duncan — will be airing a special show Sunday from noon to 1 p.m. ET on Fox News, with the critical midterm elections just over a week away.
"Ruthless" was launched in October 2020 by Holmes, a seasoned GOP strategist, and internet personality Comfortably Smug, with the mission of bringing fun to conservative politics. Duncan and Ashbrook, who worked alongside Holmes in their day jobs at their consulting firm Calvary, would later join "Ruthless" as co-hosts, rounding out the personalities on the "variety progrum."
"Ruthless," which began over Zoom calls during the COVID era and landed a licensing deal with FOX News Media last year, gives a behind-the-scenes look at elections and policy from people who have actually been in the rooms that shape Washington.
The "Fellas," as they’re known to the audience, routinely share insights from their decades of experience advising candidates at the highest levels across Republican politics.
"We felt like there was a real hole in the conservative media landscape for people who enjoy politics but want to have fun while doing it. They want to know what’s really going on but could do without the ideological lecture," Holmes told Fox News Digital at the time of the launch.
Each host brings a different background and perspective to the audience. Holmes, the pride of Minnetonka, Minnesota, served as chief of staff to longtime Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and worked for decades on various political campaigns.
Comfortably Smug, a political social media pioneer with a background in finance, often serves as the comedic wild card.
'RUTHLESS' BREAKS DOWN ELECTION DETAILS NEGLECTED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Ashbrook, a Cincinnati native who has spent decades advising Republican politicians and elected officials, provides an insight into political media that few podcasters can match. He’s the "voice" of the program and knows how the mainstream media will cover a topic before they even put pen to paper.
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Duncan is also a native Midwesterner from Indiana. He started his career at the onset of the digital revolution in politics and quickly became a savant in conservative organizing online. He has a deep knowledge of advertising and the mechanics of media consumption online.
The hosts of the "Ruthless Podcast" have covered the midterms at length over the last year, interviewing candidates in 19 states as part of the Ruthless Midterm Interview Series.
"Ruthless," which typically publishes new episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, added an extra Wednesday recording during election season.

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Fox's Red Seat Ventures is taking aim at Substack with a new offering for creators
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Netflix, Red Seat Ventures
- Fox-owned Red Seat Ventures is going after Substack's turf with a new newsletter option.
- CEO Chris Balfe said the company has had an early success with Tony Hinchcliffe's paid offering.
- The home of Tucker Carlson and Nancy Grace is also on the hunt for more big creators.
Fox's Red Seat Ventures is coming for Substack.
Led by Chris Balfe, Red Seat made its name running sales and production services for podcasters including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Nancy Grace.
Now, as the lines between creators, podcasters, and writers continue to blur, it's adding newsletter functionality to its stack. The newsletter feature will live under Supercast, a company Red Seat bought this year that offers a menu of subscription options like livestreaming for creators. They can now build free and paid newsletters and track their performance on a dashboard. The newsletter feature is included in Supercast's base pricing of $0.59 per subscriber per month, with custom pricing available for big networks and media companies.
"We want to be a one-stop shop for creators," Balfe told Business Insider. "Whereas Substack has done a really good job going after written-first creators, and then adding podcasting capability on top of that, we're going at it from the other direction and saying, for most of the creators that we work with, their audio and video is their main business. So, let's add other features like email and livestreaming."
Balfe pointed to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe of "Kill Tony" as an early example of Red Seat's success in using a multifaceted approach. Since launching a subscription, Kill Tony+, Hinchcliffe has signed up thousands of people who get his uncensored, ad-free show and bonus content.
Hinchcliffe plans to create another, super-expensive tier where people would pay to get roasted by him, Balfe said.
"It would be like $10,000 or something like that to roast you," Balfe said. "We will sell out of these so bad."
He also pointed to an early pilot of Supercast's livestreaming with "This American Life," which drew more than 1,700 paying audience members.
Red Seat is aiming for 10 big deals
Balfe wants to make Red Seat a creator-economy juggernaut, with some 200 shows. The company has around 30 shows now and is looking to do a lot more deals quickly, especially in sports, lifestyle, entertainment, and tech. Red Seat's top creator deals generally pay a minimum guarantee against projected sales.
"We really want to accelerate our rate of dealmaking," Balfe said. "I think if we did 10 big deals in the next 12 months, that would be big."
Balfe disagrees with industry insiders like iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, who say podcast distribution deals are getting too expensive. He said there was strong advertiser demand and that hosts have the ability to branch out into other areas. Balfe said he's doing deals where the show itself accounts for as little as 60% of the revenue, with the rest coming from other projects.
Balfe also sees the potential for creators to make longer deals. YouTubers are often used to getting short-term ad deals, while Red Seat is pushing for 12-month partnerships for its clients, he said.
"We're trying to do annual deals," he said. "YouTubers are attracted to that sort of consistency that the podcast business model has allowed."
Podcasts are TV now
Podcasting has become more of a video-first medium as it has evolved from its audio roots.
Forty-four percent of US podcast consumers watched a video podcast in the past week, up from 40% in 2025, according to a report from trade group Sounds Profitable released this month. YouTube is the top podcast platform, used by 63% in the past 12 months, ahead of Spotify (33%), Netflix (21%), and Apple Podcasts (15%).
Balfe thinks video will continue to grow its share of the pie. People are watching more podcasts on YouTube, especially on TV screens. Spotify is making the case that video consumption outperforms audio on its platform.
Major streamers are also hungry for podcasts, and linear TV players like Versant's MS NOW are looking for lower-cost programming to fill their schedules. Red Seat's shows aren't running on Fox's linear networks today, but Balfe said it's only a matter of time before that happens.
"I look at the next phase of video opportunities, and we have every streamer that wants our content now: Hulu, Peacock, and Amazon Prime, and Paramount Plus," Balfe said. "We also have the linear guys that are starting to come to us and say, 'Actually, what you're producing looks kind of like a talk show. Maybe we should just put it in late night or daytime.'"
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Intuição, emoção e empatia: tudo o que a IA e os algoritmos ainda não aprenderam


Para Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, “somos todos responsáveis pela delegação de poder que confiamos à IA”. E que papel cabe às novas gerações nesse desafio? “Há mais emprego, mas as empresas contratam cada vez menos jovens. É importante que as novas gerações tenham a capacidade para fazer perguntas, para questionar constantemente”. O advogado considera que “no dia em que delegármos tudo na máquina, acabou a supervisão humana. E as máquinas vão ficar cada vez mais sofisticadas. Temos que ser donos das decisões”. O ex-governante lança um olhar no futuro e deixa um prognóstico: “Cada um de nós vai pagar de forma diferente consoante aquilo que o algoritmo sabe sobre nós e qual a nossa capacidade financeira. Vamos querer isto?”. Para Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, “a IA gere riscos brutais que podem determinar a existência de uma empresa ou os valores de uma família”.
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