Podcasts Were Made for Listening—So Why Are Millions Watching?
What was once an audio-first format built for iPods is now a booming video industry dominating platforms like YouTube. Shows like Club Shay Shay, The Joe Budden Podcast, and IMO with Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast routinely post episodes stretching well past the two-hour mark—and millions of people are watching.
The numbers don’t lie. A recent episode of Club Shay Shay clocked in at nearly three hours. Theo Von’s This Past Weekend regularly tops two. Joe Budden’s unfiltered roundtable discussions can run for hours. Even The Light Podcast, hosted by former First Lady Michelle Obama, has made the shift to a visually rich, multi-camera format designed for digital platforms.
But with so much content and such long runtimes, it begs the question: who is watching all these podcasts?
From Listening to Watching: A New Kind of Podcast Audience
A 2025 survey from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights found that nearly 75% of podcast consumers now watch podcast videos—even if just in the background. That means the average podcast listener is also, in some way, a viewer.
Podcast strategist Eric Nuzum explained it plainly: “A person who loves podcasts who happens to be near a screen is probably watching them, too.”
According to Signal Hill, about 30% of users play podcasts in video format but minimize the window, using it like audio while they work, drive, or clean. For example, Zoë McDermott, a 31-year-old title insurance producer in Pennsylvania, streams Theo Von’s show while working. “It’s passive a little bit,” she said. “I don’t watch the entire thing, but I glance down if I hear something funny.”
Not Just Gen Z—And Not Just Full Episodes
Despite assumptions that Gen Z is driving the shift, the survey found the video podcast trend spans all age groups. However, what counts as “watching” varies widely.
YouTube views, for instance, start counting after just 30 seconds of watch time. That means a single click on The Joe Budden Podcast—which often runs more than two hours—can be tallied the same as someone who watches a 60-second clip of Michelle Obama’s interview with Oprah on Instagram Reels.
These short-form snippets dominate TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and X, making it difficult to distinguish between someone binging a full-length episode and someone catching a viral soundbite on their commute.
Podcasts as Visual Ambience
In the end, video podcasts have become a sort of background culture. You might find Club Shay Shay streaming on a smart TV in a living room, The Joe Budden Podcast minimized on an office desktop, or The Light Podcast echoing through earbuds while folding laundry.
There is no “typical” viewer—only millions of fragmented attention spans engaging with long-form podcasts in whatever way fits their moment.
Whether people are truly watching or just letting it run, one thing is clear: podcasts are no longer just something you hear—they’re something you see.
