The Chaser Report - Karl Stefanovic Is Not Joe Rogan

Episode Date: June 28, 2026

Charles has a theory that the world is healing, based entirely on the fact that Karl Stefanovic lost his job on Today. Meanwhile Dom, who has COVID again, shares his research on politics and podcasts to pinpoint exactly why Karl will never be Australia's Joe Rogan. ---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Hello, Charles. This episode starts with everyone's favourite words from you. I have a theory. I don't even know what the theory is. I'm just going to roll with it.

Let's do it. So, this is my theory. I think the tide is turning. You know how everything's been getting shitter and shitter and shitter and shitter? Well, since essentially we were born, Dom, but basically... Yeah, it's true. Like, in 175, I think, well, in Australia, I can tell you now, one of the key metrics for whether society is good or bad, I reckon,

is salaries paid to academics, right? Oh. And in real wage terms, salaries paid to academics peaked in 1975. Did that? And they've been going down ever since. then. Is that that Wicklam Troublemaker again? That's right.

Well, I think he jacked up. Not only did he make education completely free, but he then jacked up all the salaries and everything like that. But who's going to pay for it? All those fat cat academics. By the way, Charles, just let you take a break. I've got to check my, what's happening, your academic job. Anyway, so you're at 50-year historic lows.

Yeah, when it comes. Great time to settle up for this. this career. So, but I think the tide is now finally turning. And, I mean, I think we saw it last week with Carl Stefanovic, who has always been an annoying presence on the Australian media landscape. Let's be quite clear. Like, he's the type of, he's like the Craig Roo Castle of Australia in some ways in that,

that's really mean to the person who's spent so long becoming the Craig Roo Castle of Australia. But I'm just saying, like, he, you know, it's a. To Craig. To the actual Craig. Yeah. No, keep going. I mean, like, what Craig is to the chaser, Carl Stefanovic is to the rest of Australia,

which is this sort of person who's breezed through life, very good looking or, you know, charming, or at least sort of other people seem to think that he's good looking and charming and things are there. And then... You really have a chip on your shoulder about Craig. Don't you? But I know what you mean? I've watched the...

But you know what I mean? He's good at everything. all the time and everyone loves him. That is true. Yeah. Unfortunately, but also, you know, if you have a joke and it's struggling, you ring up Craig. And he'll just make it better.

How? I don't know. He just sort of like, oh, no, well, maybe if you just say it like that. And you go, oh, fuck. Yeah, that how you get when economics to be good. Anyway. That's it. And then, and then.

But, you know, Carl Sivinovick, right, has now, as we all know, left Channel 9 because some podcast that he set up. And you're just going, and everyone's going, oh, wow, this is the moment that Carl Stefanovic becomes Joe Rogan. No, no, no, no, no. Let's be very clear about the foundational basis of Carl Stefanovic's success, which was that he had a position. He had a position at a network that forced you to watch that network, right?

Like, old media is about transmitting something into your, house and you either accept it or you turn it off, right? Like there's no, free to air is like, it's like bashing you with what they think is good, right? There's no user involvement. It just blairs at you in one direction, three. And there's three hours of Carl a day. Like, this is a, it's a mass medium in both terms of reach, but also the sheer volume

of Carl Sophanovic for 20 years on our televisions. And let's be quite clear, it's not three hours of Carl a day. It's 20 breaks of three minutes of Carver Day. No one has ever had to experience more than, well, except, well, more than about three or four minutes of Carl Steeff and another big day. And that's including, that's even including his lovers. Oh, I would. Ouch. Ouch.

I would. Do you think after a couple of minutes, he goes, we'll be back after the break and just goes. We'll be back after the break. Brings in Richard Wilkins to break some shit. Okay. Yeah, interesting. So I reckon, my, my theory is that he's set up a podcast and like us, right, like you know what it's like doing a very successful podcast.

Yeah, sure. We were there first, right? Which is, you know, I'm on our coattails. But you disappear into the either. Like, your numbers are good. You sort of feel like you're talking to lots of people. Like, there's a whole community of people that you sort of think. But it's not like broadcast, it's narrow casting.

People have to choose. And I would, this is my other opinion, I would suggest that Carl will struggle if people have a choice of whether they're going to listen to him or not. That's interesting. The whole point about broadcast is you have no choice. It's there. It's the host. It's there. You turn it on.

It's there. Whereas this, you've got to, you know, hit subscribe. You've got to download it. You've got to go high. And you've got to choose between 15 other synthetic human beings who are all on your feet. and go, oh, yeah, I'll listen to Caldera. I'm going to suggest, I think his podcast going to sink like a turn. And this is where the turning point comes in because, but this is the beginning of the end

of the decline of Western civilization. Really? Yes, I think that it's all turning around. I don't know whether you've seen the news. Let's put a pin in why that's the case, because I just want to add something to this whole narrative. Okay. Which is that I'm at, for my folly, an underpaid, so you tell me, academic conference in Ireland,

to speak about podcasting and particularly podcasting involving politics. And in particular, Joe Rogan, I'm giving a talk on the Joe Rogan podcast. Oh, wow. And on how Joe Rogan, with some colleagues and how Joe Rogan. So, sorry, Dom, I don't think this fits into the format of this podcast because that means you're an actual expert. No, no, no, it's fine. I'm still very new in the job. But the point is, just briefly, as a result of this, we've listened to quite a lot of Joe

Rogan. Now, I won't go to the whole thing. People might know that all these, we call them brocasters who kind of analyze what they do. They helped Trump get elected by bringing young male voters who don't normally vote. Baron Trump was involved in mastermining it. But then since the election, they've turned on him for a variety of really interesting reasons, but I won't go into now, maybe another time. That's what we've been studying. Well, can you summarize with three bullet points? Because this is fascinating. Sure, absolutely. So there's a whole kind of brosphere. And what they do is, they, They all have these very long interviews with Donald Trump before the last election.

And they're people like Joe Rogan's the most famous, of course. Now, he does three-hour-long interviews with all manner of different people. And this is the one thing where Carl's really got the format wrong. This is the point I'm trying to get to is he's not being Joe Rogan. He doesn't understand what Joe Rogan does and why he's successful. And the point about Joe Rogan is that he talks to everybody. He would have talked, I think, to Kamala Harris. He certainly has talked to Bernie Sanders and all manner of people,

including even Australia's Josh Zeps, who corrected him on, like, COVID vaccines on his podcast. He has a very eclectic guest list, and Carl is just talking to right-wing influences at the moment. He's talking to, he just talked to Holly Valance, for heaven's sake. There's no universe where Joe Rogan would talk to people in that world more than, you know, once or every couple of months. But he talks about all kinds of things. And this is the thing that why Trump's podcast was so interesting. It actually made him really endearing. He sounded like a human.

and he was able to talk about sport. And this is the thing that was so interesting about the kind of masculinity of him and Theo Von and the Nelk boys. And there's another thing called Bustin with the Boys, which is just, it's basically sports bros, right? They love UFC. They're always talking about boxing. And Trump can talk about boxing and golf and NFL and particularly UFC.

And this is all part of the brand. And they're much more interested in talking to him about sport than about any of the campaign stuff. And there's even a really powerful moment where Trump talks. to this guy Theo Vaughn, who, by the way, gets on really well with Bernie Sanders and has subsequently slammed Trump on immigration. This is one of the things we've been looking at because he's the son of an immigrant himself, right? He's Latino.

But anyway, he talks, Thio Vaughan talks to him about his brother. You know how Trump had this older brother who was an alcoholic who died? And Trump really opens up in a way that you've never heard him do it any other time. And he sounds really human. And it's the opposite of what Carl does, from what I can see. He's doing these softball interviews with people who all agree with him, and he's not at all doing a range of people at having anyone on. I mean, if Carl Stephanovic was actually committed to being Joe Rogan,

he'd do a lot more work, is the point I'm getting to. So I think, yes, he might be Joe Bogan. And this is the thing where Kim Williams criticized Joe Rogan, quite famously a couple of years ago, is that you've got to actually listen to Joe Rogan to appreciate what he does, and you might not agree with him his politics. But his show is popular for a reason. It has three-hour in-depth interviews.

Like, you never hear the Hollywood stars that go on that show talking as in-depth as they do anywhere else. It's a unique offering. And it's a, he does it like almost every day. It's amazing. It makes us look like we don't come out very often. Wait, that's what I'm getting at is that he ain't no Joe Rogan. Let's take a break and then he can explain why. And we have nothing to fear from his podcast, is my point.

And also, it represents the Craig Roo Castle of Australia is no longer on air. Like, it's just a win-win. It's like, it like... Hang on, is Craig lost his show or something? All right. After the break. The Chaser Report, news a few days after it happens. So, yeah, this is the other thing I've been talking to people about here.

The kind of podcasting people is, how's he going to make this work, right? He's gone from broadcasting to narrowcasting. And he might lose his job with Irene as well. How's he going to make money doing this? Does you reckon there are enough right-wing kind of people in that sphere that he's going to make a bunch of cash out of them? Yes. No, because that sphere has looks maxing and health and all that sort of stuff. And you've got to remember they are crazy profitable sort of thing.

So if you're in the supplements industry and you're peddling peptides that don't work, but that are all through the gyms of Australia. And remember, I think it's something like 23% of under 17. your old boys now visit the gym or something. Yeah, it's huge. It's crazy how looks maxing the whole world has gone in the brosphere. Is Carl lifting? Is Carl going to the gym?

Like, he's not Joe Rogan on that front either. Joe Rogan's a beast. So, and the whole point is that, you know, like if you sell a $60 packet of pills, you're probably making $59.50 on that packet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've got in your, you can, you know, have. half your budget being, half your revenue can be marketing budget and you can shovel that to Carl. And as long as he sells 100 packets of pillets a day through his podcast, then everyone's

laughing. So I think, yeah, I think there's a business model there. And also I would contest that remember, he hangs out at parties with people like Gina Reinhardt and all those sorts of top end of town. Like he, he's very much in that billionaire milieu, right? And I think that there'd be some financial backstop stops on this exact move. Like, Gina Ryan Hart is very big on One Nation. She's bankrolling those sorts of operations. And I have no doubt that there would be, you know, just at least he would have a level of assurance that if everything else fails, he's in a milieu that will look after

him. I'm just looking at his most recent episodes here, right? So, Holly Valance and Barnaby Joyce, former Special Forces soldier, Aunt Middleton, talking about Britain losing its identity. Heston Russell talking up one nation. Sorry, Dom, Dom, can I just stop you there? Please do not be advertising the Carl Stephan. What if listeners who are listening to this think, oh my God, that sounds like a far more fascinating podcast

and then switch over and start listening to him instead. My goodness. Yeah, our listeners would definitely do that. It's all one note, is my point. It's all the same sorts of people. This is the thing that's so weird. Although he did have John Howard. He had John Howell on the 15th of June.

Oh, okay. Yeah, right. Okay. Has he got any war criminals? He's got somebody who won a court case saying that he wasn't, Heston Russell, but anyway. Yeah. So my point is, it's nothing like those other podcasts.

And several of them, and Aiden Ross, actually went, I'm so sorry, I talked about politics. I'm never going to do it again. That was a big mistake. Here's the guy that gave Donald Trump a cyber truck with Trump's picture. It was just like, that was a mistake. I think the point is he can be funded for the rest of his life in obscurity. Right?

Yes, we have influence. That's the real question. It's a win, win, win for everyone. It's a win for Australia because we don't have to watch him on Channel 9. It's a win for democracy because he is sort of now just going to go off and make himself irrelevant. And it's a win for Carl because he gets to have his money without having to get up at 4 a.m. I assume that's what this is actually about. And that's the one part of Carl's directory that I really sympathise with is not wanting to get up.

stupid o'clock. Because we, like, breakfast radio, we're not, you and I had breakfast radio together for a couple of weeks once upon a time. And that was very early in the morning. But we were getting in at like five. He's got to do like makeup and stuff. Admittedly, the women get an hour before he does every morning, just because that's the world we live in. I did make up for our breakfast radio. Did you?

Did you not do make it? Yeah. It's been half an hour in the chair. Maybe that's why we got axed. Oh, yeah. Craig, Rcastle was there. Yeah. Actually, that's a rare failure for him.

He doesn't even need. He doesn't even need. But you've got to realise that, okay, in the same week, on the same day that all this stuff is happening, right? There's a whole lot of other good news coming out of Australia. One Nation is no longer the most favoured party in Australia. Oh, really? One Nation's support is plummeting. Labor is now up by two points.

Since I left the country? What's changed? Yes. I think that maybe it's to do with you leading the country. But is there any news? Like, if I missed out on some key Australian news, it's somehow that didn't make the news in Ireland. I don't know whether you remember a better better.

Because remember the polls have about a weak slack. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember last week, Paul and Hansen did that wonderful press club speech that was really great. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And all that sort of stuff. So I think the whole point is there's a little bit of, you know, the bubble is being deflux. in the same way. And then just all around the world, things are sort of, like Trump's reflecting

pool has turned him into, you know, because Trump used to be this respected figure where, you know, people just respected his opinions. He's a really good poor guy. And then the reflecting pool, I think, is punctured. Well, it certainly punctured the lining of the pool, but it's, you know, punctured a bit of air out of him. And then, you know, Putin seems to be complacent. completely on the back foot in Ukraine.

Yes, it's amazing how that's going, actually. The Ukrainians are kicking us. Ukraine? I mean, look, it's one of those things where when you have an authoritarian regime, it looks inconceivable that the authoritarian would ever be out of power. And then one day, very quickly they are. They're very brittle. They killed a lot of Russian.

But also, Charles, you're forgetting the best one. Turkey beat the US in the World Cup. Oh, really? I didn't see it. Not in the around 30. in the third group game. Oh, right. But the US still gets through.

I think they do, yeah. But at the same time as Australia got through, so that was good. Yeah. And we get to beat Egypt next Saturday. So that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the soccer is always surprise on the upside, don't they?

Yeah. But maybe this is part of the shifting sands. Maybe the socceros actually start doing well at the World Cup. That could be amazing. That would be very different. That'd be great. Yeah. You know what this is.

This is the first ever genuinely optimistic, at least from your perspective, episode of The Chaser Report. You found a silver lining. And it coincides with you going overseas. Yeah. I don't have quite as optimistic view on the world. Charles,

I guess I'm not feeling quite as rosy about things, possibly connected to the fact that I traveled all the way. I flew from Sydney to Singapore, Singapore to Paris, Paris to Dublin, and I caught a train from Dublin to Galway, all of which took me, I don't know, maybe 27 hours or something. And then the moment I arrived in Galway,

like within hours of arriving where my conference is, I tested positive to COVID. So I'm not just feeling that life is awesome at the moment, but I'm glad you're happy that Carl's disappearing into a little right-wing filter bubble. So you're most infectious with COVID, in the 27 hours leading up to your diagnosis, isn't it? I'd just say that the lady...

You just literally, you've reseated the world. The lady who kept falling asleep on my shoulder on the train, which was very awkward and embarrassing. The elderly lady who just kept, you know, having a snuggle. Elderly, Dom, you can't kill elderly people. It was... Look, eventually I got out of there. By vaulting over the chair, I was very athletic.

Yeah, I'm just really hoping she doesn't get it. but never snow all strangers. That's the motto. All right. Well, look, it's going to be fascinating to watch. The main point is, Charles, podcasting is big. We should get on that. Yes, we should get on that.

And look, we said it last week, but I think we definitely need to sort of tilt to the right and start having boring right-wingers on the podcast as well. We'll just get, I mean, I'm in Ireland. I can go over to Britain and see Tommy Robertson's available. Yes, because he's great. I love him. I love him. He says what a lot of people are thinking, Charles.

I saw that ad for that podcast come up on Instagram, because obviously I followed Carl's podcast because I was so fascinated by the kind of the development. And he's walking down the street with his arm around the guy, and I'm just kind of going, this is, I'm not sure this is going to play very well. But in fairness, in fairness, like some of the, you know, friendly interviews on podcasts with Hitler in the lead up to 1939, were, you know, they were very, they were entertaining content.

I mean, like him or hate him, you know, there was a lot of content to be had. Yeah. So I'm not saying he's right, but a lot of people are. Oh, that's the line. How could you live with this? I must say, I'm not sure that's ever been a huge problem for Casta for Novi. He just goes and looks in the mirror and goes, oh, yeah, I'm quite good looking. We're part of the Iconiclass Network.

Catch you tomorrow.