H3 Podcast
| H3 Podcast | ||||||||||
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| Presentation | ||||||||||
| Hosted by | Ethan Klein | |||||||||
| Genre | Comedy | |||||||||
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| Created by |
Ethan Klein Hila Klein |
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| Language | English | |||||||||
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| Video format | YouTube | |||||||||
| Publication | ||||||||||
| Original release | 2016 | |||||||||
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| Related shows |
h3h3Productions Frenemies Leftovers |
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YouTube information
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| Channel | ||||||||||
| Subscribers | 2.91 million | |||||||||
| Total views | 1.25 billion | |||||||||
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Last updated: January 27, 2024 | ||||||||||
The H3 Podcast is a comedy podcast hosted by Ethan Klein. The show airs live five days a week on YouTube and was first launched on Twitch by Ethan and his wife, Hila Klein.
The H3 Podcast is one of the highest ranking podcasts in the United States. Media Monitors ranked the podcast 17th for the second quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2021, the podcast was ranked 21st by audience size and 27th by reach in the United States by Edison Research.
History
Origins
The H3 Podcast was originally hosted on YouTube, then streamed on Twitch before being moved back to YouTube on May 19, 2018. Its first episode featuring Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty was uploaded to the H3h3Productions YouTube channel on December 20, 2016, before being re-uploaded on the H3 Podcast channel on April 7, 2017.
The podcast began with conversational interviews with notable internet personalities such as PewDiePie, Post Malone and Jake Paul. Also in 2017 the Kleins created the channel H3 Podcast Highlights which posts highlights of podcast episodes. The podcast grew alongside Hila Klein's clothing line Teddy Fresh, promoting the brand to the audience which became popular among fans.
Frenemies and other shows
The channel has since launched several shows on the podcast, including After Dark, H3TV, and Off The Rails.
Frenemies was a show hosted by Trisha Paytas and Ethan Klein on the H3 Podcast. The podcast focused on discussing personal experiences, pop culture, internet drama and mental health. It consisted of 39 episodes and two accompanying vlogs. Paytas and Klein's friendship was occasionally tumultuous, leading to episodes that were incomplete due to a verbal argument. The podcast came to an end during its 39th episode, after a dispute with Paytas and Klein about podcast revenue and production ownership. Despite this, Frenemies gained recognition in the podcasting realm and found a place in numerous Top 50 lists, frequently pulling in millions of viewers per episode.
The Families podcast was created in response to Paytas unexpectedly quitting Frenemies. Families, which also discussed internet drama as well as focused on Ethan's relationship with his parents, was co-hosted by his mother, Donna Klein and featured his father, Gary Klein.
Leftovers, a left-leaning political podcast co-hosted by Hasan Piker and Ethan, was launched in September 2021. Tubefilter reported that the first episode reached 1 million views a day after being published.
Charity work
In April 2020, Ethan and Hila Klein began a 100-day, $100,000 monetary giveaway, to provide aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. They used the podcast to update viewers that additional donors, Brendan Greene and John Schnatter (better known as Papa John), had signed on increasing the size of the fund to $250,000. Brendan Greene's $50,000 contribution was successfully added to the giveaway but due to accounting issues Papa John donated $100,000 to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on Ethan and Hila's names instead.
Steamy Awards
The Steamy Awards, also called the Steamies, is an annual awards show created by the H3 Podcast. The name is a parody of the Streamy Awards, an awards show that honors YouTubers, streamers, and other online creators. The first Steamy Awards aired live on the H3 Podcast YouTube channel on January 5, 2021, as the 15th episode of Frenemies, with Ethan Klein and Trisha Paytas hosting. The second show aired live on the YouTube channel on January 28, 2022, and was co-hosted by Ethan Klein and Def Noodles. The third show aired live on the YouTube channel on February 1, 2023, with Ethan Klein hosting alongside guest hosts Jeff Wittek and Tana Mongeau. The fourth show was hosted at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, and simultaneously aired live on the YouTube channel on December 17, 2023, with Ethan Klein hosting alongside guest hosts Jeff Wittek, Tana Mongeau, and a Logan Paul lookalike. Hila Klein, various members of the podcast crew, and several guests from the podcast appeared on-stage throughout the show.
Controversies and lawsuits
Triller Fight Club II LLC v. The H3 Podcast
In May 2021, Triller's event company filed an updated lawsuit to the US District Court for the Central District of California against the H3 Podcast and the Kleins, seeking $50 million in damages. The lawsuit alleged copyright infringement in the now deleted podcast episode titled Jake Paul Fight Was a Disaster, which aired five days after the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren fight and featured knockout footage along with Ethan's commentary on the event.
YouTube suspensions
In May 2022, the H3 Podcast channel was suspended when Ethan joked on air that someone should bomb the NRA convention. In October 2022, the same channel received a strike and one week suspension following comments directed at Jewish conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, in which Ethan stated he hoped "Ben gets gassed first. Or last" in the event of a second Holocaust. In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said that the channel was given a strike for "violating the platform's harassment policy". Ethan responded later that "[a] few white supremacists successfully lobbied YouTube to suspend me, a Jewish dual citizen of Israel & USA, for antisemitism."
Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Work | Result | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Streamy Awards | Best Podcast | H3 Podcast | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Nominated | ||||
| 2020 | Nominated | ||||
| 2022 | Nominated | ||||
| 2023 | Nominated |