Former First Lady Michelle Obama was mercilessly ridiculed on social media after the first few episodes of her new podcast, “IMO (In My Opinion),” debuted to poor numbers when compared to other political shows on YouTube.
To begin their new media endeavor, Obama and her brother Craig Robinson launched their video podcast on Monday, March 10, and uploaded their first two episodes on Wednesday.
But on their first day on the platform, the two episodes received 15,000 and 47,000 views, respectively. On the other hand, Joe Rogan’s show receives between 500,000 and 56 million viewers and listeners each episode, while California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new podcast received over 743,000 views on YouTube in its debut episode.
Several on social media to poke fun at the former first lady for her “abysmal” viewership numbers.
One user on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a screenshot showing the view count on Obama’s YouTube page and wrote, “Michelle Obama’s first couple podcast episodes absolutely flopped, not even getting a combined 20,000 views in the 15 hours after posting. The comments filled with people saying ‘nobody asked for this.’ What an utter failure. Who thought this was a good idea?”
Another X user commented: “I find the majority of successful podcasts come about naturally and over time. The left seems to think success can be forced. I have news for ‘em. You can’t just take someone who was popular at one time, and achieve your goals. It just doesn’t work that way.”
A third person pointed out: “This is extremely embarrassing. Absolutely insane that it did this bad.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters declared Michelle Obama’s podcast a “flop” just hours after the first episode was released.
Watters said on Wednesday night’s episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime” that he had been wondering where the former First Lady had vanished after she missed several important occasions, such as the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the funeral for former President Jimmy Carter.
“Turns out, Michelle has been busy working on a new podcast, and so far, it’s been a flop,” he quipped. “The first two episodes have been up all day and only gotten a few thousand views on YouTube. Half of them are probably Primetime producers, but still.”
Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy also called the show “boring.”
“This would’ve been such interesting stories about 15 years ago. I don’t care about any of these stories; I didn’t even find them funny.”
Speaking about her podcast on Instagram, Obama wrote: “There’s a lot going on in the world right now. We’re living through some really complicated and confusing times and on top of that, folks are trying to juggle family life, work dynamics, relationships, aging parents, and more.”
Former President Barack Obama attended a Los Angeles Clippers game courtside on Wednesday—but noticeably without Michelle Obama, further sparking rumors of a coming breakup.
Instead, Obama was seen sitting alongside Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie Snyder, effectively third-wheeling.
Barack Obama notably attended President Donald Trump’s second inauguration alone in January after Michelle, a vocal critic of Trump, opted to skip the event.
Michelle Obama was also absent from her husband’s side at the funeral for President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in D.C., with reports indicating that she chose to stay in Hawaii for an “extended holiday vacation” instead.
Despite ongoing speculation about their relationship, the couple appeared affectionate on Valentine’s Day last month, with both sharing heartfelt messages on social media, The Post noted.
Shortly after Michelle announced her plan to skip Trump’s inauguration, a source familiar with her thoughts said that the former first lady would not want to fake a smile for someone she still views as a threat to American democracy.
