Ted Cruz is taking his podcast to the big leagues and leaving his co-host Michael Knowles behind.
The announcement came during the Friday edition of Verdict with Ted Cruz where, in a very rare showing, both hosts were in the same studio.
Knowles revealed that the show had received an offer to move the show from independent production to iHeart Media where more resources and staffing could be provided to turn the show into a terrestrial radio broadcast.
“So an offer has come in from iHeartRadio to take this show to a huge national audience — it’s already obviously at a national audience on podcast, but on radio stations. On terrestrial radio. iHeart has a gigantic network,” Knowles said.
“iHeart can fund the whole thing,” Knowles added.
“Yup,” replied an uncharacteristically quiet Cruz.
“Fund production, dump a whole bunch of money into marketing. This is incredible. It will make this show sustainable, not just for the next few months going into the midterms, but for the next years,” Knowles said.
The only caveat to the deal would be that Knowles will no longer be part of the production. Since Knowles’ full time gig is at The Daily Wire, he won’t be able to work for iHeart media, which is a competitor.
“This show has never been about me. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. It’s been an amazing ride,” he said.
The pair announced that Knowles would be replaced by Ben Ferguson, another conservative podcast host from iHeart. Currently, he hosts his own show, The Ben Ferguson Podcast which airs Sunday through Friday.
It’s not clear what will become of Cruz’s podcast production house Verdict+ which is home to Cloakroom, another show hosted by Cruz and commentator Liz Wheeler.
Listen above via Verdict with Ted Cruz.
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