Chelsea Handler slams Joe Rogan’s $82 million salary after “Forbes” names him highest-paid podcaster

Marina WattsThu, July 30, 2026 at 10:32 PM UTC

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Chelsea Handler in Los Angeles in December 2025; Joe Rogan on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty; Joe Rogan PowerfulJRE/YouTubeKey Points -

Chelsea Handler spoke out after learning Joe Rogan is slated to generate $82 million from his podcast in 2026.

“82 million to be completely uninformed and say ‘whoopsie doodle,’ every time he’s wrong, which is FREQUENT?” she wrote on Instagram.

The Joe Rogan Experience, which debuted in 2009,is consistently ranked as one of the most popular podcasts.

Chelsea Handler was stunned to find out how much Joe Rogan makes as a podcaster.

The comedian spoke out after Forbes released its list of the “Highest-Paid Podcasters of 2026,” ranking the polarizing podcaster as No. 1, estimated to generate a cool $82 million this year with The Joe Rogan Experience.

“WHO IS PAYING JOE ROGAN 82 million?” Handler commented on Forbes’ Instagram post promoting the article. “Give that to our vets, or our children!!! 82 million to be completely uninformed and say ‘whoopsie doodle,’ every time he’s wrong, which is FREQUENT?”

Joe Rogan at Madison Square Garden in New York in November 2024Credit: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Entertainment Weekly reached out to Rogan and did not receive an immediate response.

Among the top-earning podcasts include Ashley Flowers’ Crime Junkie generating $42 million, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes with Smartless coming in at $37 million, Mel Robbins with her eponymous podcast with $35 million, and New Heights with Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce, also at $35 million.

The comedian and UFC broadcaster launched his podcast in 2009. He received a three-year contract with Spotify in 2024, after initially joining the streamer in 2020, which has the potential to reach $250 million. It is constantly ranked as one of the most popular podcasts on the platform.

Forbes estimates that Rogan, who records roughly 15 podcasts each month (about one every-other day), pulls over 80 million in downloads and views monthly.

During his episodes, which can go on for three hours, he pairs “deep listener trust with massive scale,” Forbes said. He records in Austin, Texas, and has hosted an array of guests from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump.

Rogan has polarized listeners, and non-listeners alike, having been known to spread misinformation about COVID-19 on his podcast, along with his repeated use of racial slurs, the latter of which he apologized for in 2022.

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Spotify responded to protests of his COVID-19 misinformation after artists Neil Young and Joni Mitchellpulled their music from the streamer.

“We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users. In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them,” Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek wrote in a public letter.

Meanwhile, Rogan said: “I think there’s a lot of people that have a distorted perception of what I do, maybe based on sound bites or based on headlines of articles that are disparaging.” He also defended interviewing vaccine-skeptical doctors on his show, claiming they were “very highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished people.”

Chelsea Handler in Los Angeles in 2023Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty

The Joe Rogan Experience is also thought to have helped Trump win the 2024 presidential election. Years before, in 2022, Rogan denounced Trump, saying that he didn’t want to “help” Trump politically because he was “an existential threat to democracy.”

“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape, or form,” Rogan said at the time during an interview on Lex Fridman’s podcast. “I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once — I’ve said no every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him.”

However, after having Elon Musk on his podcast in November 2024, Rogan said that the tech titan “makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” ultimately endorsing Trump.

In July 2025, he sang a different tune. Rogan became critical of the way Trump handled the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, claiming the administration is “trying to gaslight” on the topic.

on Entertainment Weekly

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”