The 30-year-old Call Her Daddy star signed a massive contract with SiriusXM in August with the promise of bringing a new generation to the aging satellite network. Now all she has to do is deliver.
It’s 9 p.m. in Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre when five performers take the stage. Eminem’s “Shake That” blasts from the speakers, and the male dancers start to tear off their clothes. As they strip down to their last layer, an energized Alexandra Cooper appears behind them in her signature pink sweat set.
“Welcome to the Unwell Tour!” Cooper, 30, shouts to the 5,000 screaming young women who have packed the house.
After the burlesque show, Cooper talks about growing up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, playing Division I soccer at Boston University and her rollercoaster sex life. Multiple dance numbers and outfit changes later, pop star Camila Cabello and comedian Heather McMahan join her for onstage interviews before a performance by “Man Eater” singer Nelly Furtado closes out the show.
It’s the seventh and final date of Cooper’s personal revue, based on her hit podcast, Call Her Daddy, which regularly attracts more than 13.5 million monthly listeners. The live shows are a celebratory end to Cooper’s massive year: In August, she signed a $125 million three-year deal with SiriusXM to bring her Unwell Network of five podcasts to the 34 million subscriber–strong radio giant. Unwell is a branch of Cooper’s self-described “Gen Z media company,” Trending, which she cofounded in April 2023 with her film producer husband, Matt Kaplan. In addition to Call Her Daddy, Unwell also oversees other popular influencer-hosted shows such as Hot Mess with Alix Earle (an estimated 1 million monthly listeners) and Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy (an estimated 330,000). Both Earle and Argy, like Cooper, are Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnae.
Her ambitions for Trending are unbounded: live events, scripted and unscripted shows, podcasts, tours and commerce. The company is young, but the SiriusXM deal gives it a nice cash cushion. “We look for audio talent that is interesting, powerful, has a point of view and has a social media following that can amplify what they’re doing on the air,” says Scott Greenstein, president of SiriusXM.
They’ve employed this tactic before. In 2006, Sirius paid $500 million over five years to Howard Stern. It was an expensive but effective move: Sirius subscriptions increased from fewer than 1.5 million in March 2005 to more than 4 million just a year later—due at least partly to Stern. Sirius revenue jumped too, up 193% year over year to $125 million in the first quarter of 2006. With Cooper, Sirius is betting big that its 20-year-old playbook works in the age of smartphones and streamers like Spotify and YouTube.
Prior to signing with SiriusXM, Cooper had a $60 million, three-year deal with streaming titan Spotify. But it was time to move on. “The brand had only grown since being at Spotify,” Cooper says. “I knew the money would be there. The deal was more about what other things people can give Call Her Daddy and Unwell that will help us grow.”
Grown she has. In 2018, Cooper was heartbroken and unemployed, recording a podcast with her then-roommate, Sofia Franklyn, from their NYC apartment. The pair dished on their dating lives as single 20-somethings and quickly gained a community of loyal young female fans who called themselves the “Daddy Gang.” The show caught the attention of David Portnoy, the charismatic and controversial founder of Barstool Sports, a digital media outfit aimed at sports-obsessed young men. It was an instant hit, generating 2 million downloads in its first two months. Cooper then took it to Spotify in 2021, broadening it away from just sex and dating.
“Everything I do is strategic when it comes to my business,” she says. “But it’s also natural. I didn’t want to just keep talking about the same thing.”
While at Spotify, Cooper turned Call Her Daddy into one of journalism’s top destinations, drawing comparisons to Barbara Walters and Howard Stern. Guests have included Jane Fonda, Simone Biles and, in October, a much-publicized interview with Kamala Harris. Sponsors including Tinder, Sephora and Airbnb flocked too. Today, Call Her Daddy jousts with the likes of The Joe Rogan Experience and the New York Times’ The Daily for a spot at the top of the podcast streaming charts.
“Pre-Spotify, I had barely done any interviews, so I was pitching the dream,” Cooper says. “Now the dream is here and I’m able to turn around and see who wants to work with me.”
For the moment, at least, Call Her Daddy will remain available on non-SiriusXM platforms, including Spotify, although Cooper says exclusivity conversations are ongoing.
“Sirius is trying to expand online, more digital, and her demographics are younger,” says Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich. “There are a few big names in podcasting. She’s one of them.”
Now it’s up to Cooper to use her social clout to refresh SiriusXM’s older subscriber base with a new, younger audience. “We’re having this conversation because of the product that I built and I own,” Cooper says. “There is a lot of pressure on me to keep it moving, but I love pressure.”
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
