Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

López: Dirty John was #1 on Apple Podcasts for 30 straight days

Hernán López · Wondery: Hernan Lopez · Dec 11, 2023 · at 50:41

Hernán López, founder of podcast studio Wondery, recounts the breakout success of the 2017 investigative podcast Dirty John, produced in partnership with the Los Angeles Times.

0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.4s

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“It was number one on Apple Podcasts for 30 days straight. It made something like two million listeners within the first month per episode more, way more than we had predicted”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Dirty John was number one on Apple Podcasts for 30 consecutive days and reached approximately two million listeners per episode within its first month.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim bundles two assertions. The first leg—that 'Dirty John' held the #1 spot on Apple Podcasts for 30 consecutive days—is corroborated by contemporaneous reporting from the Los Angeles Times (which confirmed 31 days at No. 1) and industry reports from 2017–2018. However, the second leg—that it averaged approximately 2 million listeners/downloads per episode within its first month—is an overestimate for that specific timeframe. Reporting from the Columbia Journalism Review in late October 2017 showed that the six-episode series amassed over 7 million downloads in its debut month (~1.17 million per episode). It reached ~1.67 million per episode by week six (10 million total) and later surpassed 2 million downloads per episode over its full release run, but did not reach that average within its initial month.

Los Angeles Times reporting in November 2017 confirmed that 'Dirty John' spent 31 days at No. 1 on Apple Podcasts.
Columbia Journalism Review reported on October 30, 2017, that 'Dirty John' had garnered more than 7 million downloads across its 6 episodes during its debut month (~1.17 million per episode).
Subsequent reporting and LA Times Studios figures indicate the podcast reached 10 million downloads by week six (~1.67 million/episode) and later averaged over 2 million downloads per episode over its full release run.

Checked against

[1] latimes.com [2] thewrap.com [3] facebook.com [4] shortyawards.com [5] cjr.org [6] fastcompany.com [7] niemanlab.org [8] latimes.com

"Dirty John" "downloads" "first month" "Dirty John" "top of the" "charts" "30 days" OR "three weeks" OR "four weeks" OR "month" "Dirty John" "number one for" OR "spent" "days" "Apple" OR "iTunes" Dirty John podcast first month downloads per episode 2 million "Dirty John" "downloads" "October 2017" "million" Dirty John podcast downloads 10 million six weeks October 2017 "Dirty John" "two million" OR "2 million" "per episode" "Dirty John" "Podtrac" OR "Chartable" "number one" OR "#1"

assessed as of 2026-09-03

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Apple Podcasts Dirty John Wondery

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