From 2016 to 2022, Adam Friedland, Stavros Halkias, and Nick Mullen co-hosted Cum Town, one of the most successful comedy podcasts of the decade preceding The Adam Friedland Show.[2] When Halkias announced that he was departing Cum Town in June of 2022,[3] Friedland and Mullen ended the show and revealed plans for a spin-off production—The Adam Friedland Show—a YouTube talk show to be hosted by Friedland and produced by Mullen. Turning Friedland, who was often the butt of jokes on Cum Town into the star of a new program, began as mostly a joke, but over time, he grew into the role.[2]
In August of 2022, Friedland and Mullen began releasing test episodes of The Adam Friedland Show on Patreon while the set was being constructed. These episodes were shot on the unfurnished studio, and episodes of a companion podcast The Adam Friedland Show Podcast began being released as well.[4]
Season One
The set for The Adam Friedland Show was completed in the fall of 2022 and modeled after that of The Dick Cavett Show.[5] The show aired its first official episode on Halloween, 2022, with Adam hosting in a loose brown suit. The first episode saw Adam, co-host Nick Mullen, and guest Shane Gillis all in Halloween costumes throughout the episode, with Mullen as Dracula and Gillis as Frankenstein.[6]
Following the second episode, Mullen stopped appearing as co-host to focus on producing the show and acting in character bits. Most episodes for the rest of the season featured an opening pre-taped sketch taking place behind the scenes of the show, usually with Friedland as himself and Mullen as either himself, the show's producer Dracula, or political blogger Jeff Tiedrich's demented nephew Marty Tiedrich. Two later episodes in the season, the Rob Schneider episode and the Paul Schrader episode, each opened on a more elaborate short film. The Schrader episode featured Adam Friedland's Taxi Driver, an elaborate short about Friedland making a Taxi Driver parody in which he plays all the parts,[7] and the Schneider episode featured Nick & Adam 1998, a Mullen-directed short about 11-year-old versions of Friedland and Mullen going to see the movie The Waterboy. Sopranos star Drea DeMatteo played Friedland's mother.[8]
On January 25, 2025, Mullen departed the show.[9]The Adam Friedland Show Podcast episodes stopped being release, and the show pivoted to just being the YouTube talk show. The show no longer featured an opening pretape sketch, instead just making its focus Friedland's interview.
In February 2025, Friedland began releasing a series of episodes called "The Lost Episodes." These were interviews that were recorded in the studio with Drea DeMatteo, Julian Casablancas, Tom Fontana, and Hasan Piker that weren't released with the initial season one run for various reasons.
Season Two
In May 2025, trailers began to release for the show,[10] and Friedland began a press tour, with a profile in GQ,[1] 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 avant-garde production of the show, and his hard-hitting questions. The New Yorker described The Adam Friedland Show as "subversive" and "irresistibly funny".[11]
Friedland's August 27th interview with Congressman Ritchie Torres, in which Friedland emotionally confronted the politician over his support for Israel, drew a positive response and press coverage, with some calling it a breakthrough moment.[12][13][14] The show also received considerable attention for scoring an interview with New York City mayor elect Zohran Mamdani immediately following his victory.[15]
Format
The show usually begins with a highlight from the interview, then the theme song/opening credits, then a short segment where host Adam Friedland addresses the viewer from a room full of audio visual equipment, then an interview with that week's guest that usually runs for around an hour. Occasionally, there's a segment in between Adam's intro and the interview.
For most of the first season, the show opened with a metafictional sketch involving Friedland and co-creator Nick Mullen discussing the show and its production, including their feud with fictional producer Dracula (played by Mullen). In early episodes, that sketch was followed by a late night-style monologue in which Friedland comments on recent events, which was then followed by the interview.
The show's companion podcast, The Adam Friedland Show Podcast (similar to Cum Town in format), ran weekly from 2022 to 2025. It ceased airing on the show's shift to the talk show only model in 2025, though audio of the main episodes continue to be released on the podcast feed.
↑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.
↑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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