Disney+ and Hulu will add Las Culturistas, the podcast hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, to their catalog. The debut is set for November 18, and new episodes will be released on a weekly basis. In the meantime, the show will continue to be available on YouTube as well, maintaining a distribution model that pairs streaming platforms with already established video channels.
For Disney, this is not a simple acquisition of audio content relegated to the margins of its catalog. The arrival of Las Culturistas continues an editorial and commercial experiment bringing external podcasts—not conceived as direct extensions of the platform's series or films—into services historically built around on-demand audiovisual consumption. In this case, the title's significance stems primarily from its recognizability in U.S. pop culture and the relationship built over the years with a highly loyal community of listeners.
Yang and Rogers launched the show in 2016. The format revolves around commentary, conversations, and rankings tied to entertainment and pop culture, featuring celebrity guests and recurring segments like “I Don’t Think So Honey”. Over time, the podcast has hosted, among others, Mariah Carey, Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Reese Witherspoon, Ariana Grande, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Nicole Kidman. It is a roster that helps explain why the project has transcended the scale of a niche podcast, becoming a relevant promotional and cultural platform for music, film, television, and celebrity culture.
A format already capable of living beyond audio
Las Culturistas is produced by the Big Money Players Podcast Network, a network associated with Will Ferrell, and by iHeartRadio. Over the past two years, the brand has also brought its own parody awards ceremony, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, to the screen. It is a significant shift: the podcast is not treated merely as a series of audio episodes, but as a property capable of generating events, clips, guests, viral moments, and audiovisual appointments.
This suitability for multi-format distribution makes the show a natural choice for Disney+ and Hulu. The platforms are not necessarily seeking to replicate the traditional podcast app experience, built on endless back catalogs and mobile listening. Instead, they are selecting shows with recognizable hosts, a format already compatible with video viewing, and a release frequency designed to bring audiences back to the service each week.
For a conversational podcast, availability on a streaming platform can change the scale of discovery far more than the editorial content itself. Users encounter the title alongside films, series, and other programming, rather than deliberately searching for it in a dedicated app. At the same time, Disney and Hulu can offer their subscribers an additional reason to stay within the ecosystem between scripted releases, with fresh material that is less expensive to produce than high-budget scripted series.
The iHeart deal and Disney’s change of pace
The addition of Las Culturistas stems from the agreement signed in August 2026 between Disney and iHeartPodcasts. It is the latest title in a lineup of iHeart shows that have already arrived on Disney+ and Hulu: Hey Jonas!, Pod Meets World, Fake Doctors, Real Friends, StraightioLab, and Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim. The common denominator is the hosts' strong identity and, in many cases, an immediate connection to television, music, or comedy fandoms.
The move is part of a strategy initiated prior to the agreement with iHeart. Earlier this year, Disney+ and Hulu began hosting third-party podcasts through a licensing deal with Headgum. The first show made available under that partnership was We’re Here to Help, hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds. The decision indicates that interest is not limited to in-house productions or projects tied to major Disney intellectual properties: the group is testing the inclusion of independent editorial voices in its catalog.
The business logic is clear, even if the results of this distribution remain to be measured. Video podcasts have found a central home on YouTube, thanks to the ease with which full episodes coexist with clips, shorts, and algorithmic recommendations. Hulu and Disney+ are trying to tap into a share of that habit within a subscription environment, where discovery relies on homepages, collections, and recommendations different from those of Google's platform.
Hulu, in particular, thus joins Netflix in the group of services experimenting with podcasts as an additional entertainment category. The challenge is not just convincing users to hit play on a talk show: it is understanding whether the weekly episode can be highlighted in the interface, measured with useful metrics, and monetized within an offering that, until recently, associated value primarily with films, series, documentaries, and live content.
Broad, non-exclusive distribution
The continued presence of Las Culturistas on YouTube clarifies another aspect of the move. Neither an exclusive transfer nor the abandonment of the channels that contributed to the show's growth has been announced. The choice seems aimed at maximizing the format's reach: YouTube retains its role in audience discovery and engagement, while Disney+ and Hulu add a new showcase in a premium context.
For creators and podcast networks, this formula may be more compelling than pure exclusivity. An exclusive deal often guarantees sharper positioning, but limits availability and can alienate part of the audience accustomed to following the show elsewhere. Multi-platform distribution, on the other hand, allows them to maintain the existing base while seeking a new one. The trade-off lies in differentiation: Disney and Hulu will need to communicate the value of the addition without being able to present the podcast as content available exclusively to their subscribers.
In the case of Yang and Rogers, brand strength can partly offset this limitation. Bowen Yang is a familiar presence beyond the podcast as well, while the dialogue between the two hosts and the extensive roster of guests have built a recognizable identity. For the audiovisual industry, the significance of the news lies precisely in the nature of the product: not a podcast-to-series adaptation, nor a simple promotional video, but the direct entry of an already established conversational format into the catalogs of two major streamers.
Starting November 18, it will be possible to see whether this placement generates greater attention for the weekly episodes and whether Disney will further expand its portfolio. For now, the arrival of Las Culturistas confirms that the competition for audience time is no longer fought solely between feature films and series. Podcasts—especially those that already have a face, guests, and a strong cultural footprint—are becoming valuable raw material for subscription video services as well.
