Topline
Conservative pundits found some of their biggest audiences ever between Wednesday and Thursday as they covered the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist who was shot and killed at a Utah university event on Wednesday.
Conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly amassed 3.9 million views on a nearly three-hour livestream that aired on her YouTube channel Wednesday afternoon, Kelly’s second-biggest livestream and one of her most-viewed videos, in which she covered Kirk’s assassination and learned of his death on air, which led her and guest Glenn Beck to tears.
A two-hour Daily Wire livestream simulcast on the Daily Wire YouTube channel, as well as YouTube channels of hosts including Michael Knowles and Ben Shapiro, garnered at least 3.8 million views combined, with Shapiro's upload becoming his second-most-viewed YouTube livestream ever.
Kelly and Shapiro’s podcast episodes on Kirk ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, on Apple’s podcast episode chart Thursday.
Tim Pool, a right-wing streamer, garnered 1.1 million views on an hour-long YouTube livestream Wednesday afternoon, marking his most-viewed livestream with more than double the views of the next most viewed.
Steven Crowder, a popular right-wing Rumble streamer, garnered more than 1 million views on an ongoing livestream Thursday afternoon, one of his most-viewed streams in months.
Kirk’s own podcast, “The Charlie Kirk Show,” ranks No. 1 on the Apple podcast charts as of Thursday afternoon.
Hasan Piker, one of the most popular leftist streamers, also saw a huge spike in views on Wednesday, garnering 3.7 million views on an 8-hour Twitch broadcast. Piker’s stream started out covering general news, including the New York City mayoral race and Epstein documents, but Piker learned of Kirk’s shooting less than an hour into filming and pivoted his broadcast to focus on Kirk. Piker’s previous broadcasts generally reached about 500,000 to 700,000 viewers.
Knowles opened a video posted Thursday afternoon by declaring Kirk “would have been president” one day, stating “his friends knew it, his admirers knew it and his enemies knew it.” Many of these conservative streamers, including Kelly and Pool, knew Kirk personally and mourned him during their streams. Shapiro, in a video posted Thursday, said Kirk was his friend, calling his assassination “truly horrifying in every possible way.”
Kirk was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon. The assassination sparked tributes from politicians of both parties as many condemned political violence. The perpetrator remains at large as of Thursday afternoon, and the FBI has since released photos of a person of interest, which show a man wearing dark clothing, including a t-shirt bearing an American flag, a hat and sunglasses. Authorities said at a press conference earlier Thursday the suspected perpetrator appears to be “of college age” and “blended in well with the institution.” President Donald Trump, who announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon, said Thursday he would honor Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kirk, 31, was the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization promoting conservatism on college campuses, and he was well known for his podcast, “The Charlie Kirk Show,” and his widely followed social media presence.
Charlie Kirk Shooting: Photo Of Person Of Interest Released (Live Updates) (Forbes)