The Adam Friedland Show was preceded by Cum Town, a comedy podcast hosted by Mullen, Friedland, and fellow comedian Stavros Halkias.[1][2][3] On June 25, 2022, Halkias announced that he was no longer part of Cum Town.[4] Subsequently, Mullen and Friedland revealed their plan for a spin-off production—The Adam Friedland Show—to be hosted by Friedland and produced by Mullen.
During the summer of 2022, test episodes of The Adam Friedland Show were released while the show's set was being constructed. These episodes began as audio-only conversations between Mullen, Friedland, and an occasional guest. The first episode to feature a video recording was shot in the creators' unfurnished studio and released in August 2022.[5] Audio-only podcasts continued to be released to the public, with the full video-based episodes available only to Patreon supporters.
The set for The Adam Friedland Show was completed in the fall of 2022 and modeled after that of The Dick Cavett Show.[6] The show's first official episode was released on October 31. Mullen co-hosted the first two episodes and then stepped back to focus on his work as executive producer.[7]
After the establishment of the talk show, the Adam Friedland Show Podcast was released for free streaming. The podcast had both an audio and a video version.[6][8]
On January 25, 2025, it was revealed Mullen would be departing the show.[9] Audio podcast episodes ceased being released after Mullen's departure as the show pivoted to a talk-show only format.
On March 3, 2025, the Patreon account for The Adam Friedland Show was renamed to Cum Town Archive and an episode titled Cum Town Farewell was uploaded, with its description having described the release as "...the final episode of Cum Town," accompanying a larger expression of gratitude for fans of the podcast.[10]
Beginning with Mullen's departure, Friedland took the show and podcast offline for several months, giving little word about his activities, leading to speculation among fans and viewers as to whether the show would continue. However, in May 2025, trailers began to release for the show,[11] and Friedland began a press tour, with a profile in GQ,[12] as well as numerous podcast appearances promoting his show and personal brand.[citation needed]
On May 28, 2025, Friedland released a surprise announcement, revealing that he had been working on a revamped second season of the show. This season would have a regular weekly release of an hour-long talk show episode. This was a large change to the first season's sporadic release over a period of over two years, oftentimes with gaps in production of several months.[citation needed]
Friedland's new season has reached mainstream acclaim, with several favorable write-ups praising his offbeat interview style, the avante-garde production of the show, and his hard-hitting questions. The New Yorker described The Adam Friedland Show as "subversive" and "irresistibly funny".[13]
Content
Episodes of The Adam Friedland Show are available for free on YouTube. They sometimes open with a metafictional sketch involving Friedland and Mullen discussing the show and its production, including their feud with fictional producer Dracula (played by Mullen). The sketch is followed by a monologue in which Friedland comments on recent events. The monologue is followed by a conversation between Friedland and the guest. Featured guests include astronomer and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson, businessman Dave Portnoy, musicians Julian Casablancas, Mac DeMarco and Matty Healy, rapper Jadakiss, and journalist Chris Cuomo.[14][15][16][2][1]
Patreon episodes of The Adam Friedland Show Podcast do not follow the talk show format and are reminiscent of Cum Town. Mullen co-hosted the podcasts with Friedland until 2025.[citation needed]
The show is available for free on the show's YouTube channel.[22]
Free episodes of the audio and video The Adam Friedland Show Podcast are available via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, and YouTube, among other services.[23][24][25] Subscribers who contributed at least $5 per month via Patreon gain access to an additional podcast episode each week, as well as additional bonus content, including TAFS Digital Shorts and TAFS Scraps.[26]
As of March 2023[update], the show was the seventh-most popular podcast on Patreon and the ninth-most popular creator on the platform overall; with more than 18,000 paying members, it had around $88,000 in monthly earnings.[27]
References
1 2 Lindsay, Kate (May 27, 2023). "My Boyfriend and I Are Closer Than Ever, Thanks to the Taylor Swift-Matty Healy Drama". GQ. Retrieved May 31, 2023. The niche comedians behind that podcast are now indirectly responsible for the soft cancellation of one of the music industry's biggest artists. The Adam Friedland Show, known in an earlier iteration as Cum Town, featured Matty Healy as a guest on February 9.
1 2 Tolentino, Jia (May 29, 2023). "Who Is Matty Healy? For the front man of the 1975, fame is its own kind of performance". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 31, 2023. A month later, Healy went on a podcast called "The Adam Friedland Show." Friedland, whom Healy had befriended in the past couple of years, used to host the podcast "Cum Town," a title that reflects the "Borat"-esque level of seriousness that he and his co-hosts generally brought to the table. Friedland is part of a downtown New York scene referred to as Dimes Square, which, during the pandemic, became widely known for an ostensibly transgressive rejection of liberal pieties and a reactionary brand of post-left politics particularly associated with another podcast, "Red Scare."
↑ Halkias, Stavros [@stavvybaby] (June 25, 2022). "We had a good run 🤍🤍" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2022– via Twitter. Wanted to let everyone know that I'm not a part of cum town anymore.
1 2 Bernstein, Joseph (July 20, 2025). "Who Is Watching All These Podcasts?". The New York Times. Adam Friedland, a comedian who started his video interview show in 2022, first came to prominence on an irreverent and lewd audio-only hangout podcast with two fellow comedians. [...] Mr. Friedland's show is the rare video podcast with a distinctive visual point of view; the vintage-looking set is a reconstruction of "The Dick Cavett Show."
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