Podcast pioneer calls it a day – saying he can't compete with big-name hosts

Richard Herring is bringing his RHLSTP podcast to an end after nearly 15 years, he has announced.

Writing in his daily Warming Up blog, the comic said that he is ‘pretty certain’ that his next three live podcasts, will be ‘the last three live RHLSTP shows I do’.

However, he qualified that by saying that 'at the very least I am going to take a break from’ the show, fullly titled the Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.

Having recorded almost 1,000 shows at the London venue and elsewhere since 2012, he added that: ‘I think it’s probably time to move on to do something else’.

The podcast, which had its roots in a 2011 Edinburgh Fringe interview show, has won four Chortle Awards, while Herring has been dubbed ‘The Podfather’ by the Guardian for his pioneering show’s impact on the comedy scene.

He will continue to release the spin-off Book Club episodes that he records remotely. But he confirmed that ‘all the signs seem to point towards it being time to bring the main show to an end.’

Laying out his reasons, he wrote: ‘Firstly, I’ve done a lot of them: we’re closing in on 1000 eps if you include book clubs and Edinburgh shows. 

‘Secondly, there is so much competition now (mostly shows hosted by huge household names), which also means that it’s much harder to attract guests, listeners and audience members.

‘Thirdly and linked to that it’s a lot of work for my team of Evanses [Chris, publisher, and Ben, audio mixer] and [producer] Ben Walker and George the incompetent sound man and me and we’re no longer really earning enough from ads to pay everyone properly.

'Much as I like working for free (as I did for most of the first ten years of podcasting and continue to do with my other stupid podcast projects) I do have to feed my family and feel that maybe my time might be better spent on other projects. Even though those projects may turn out to be just daily unpaid conversations with my ventriloquist dummy’ – an allusion to one of his other podcasts with his dummy Ally.

Guests on the podcast have included Steve Coogan, Michael Palin, Sarah Millican, David Mitchell, Alexei Sayle, Russell Brand, Herring’s former double-act partner Stewart Lee and Richard E Grant, whose episode has infamously never aired. In his 2013 interview, Stephen Fry revealed he had attempted suicide the previous year, making international headlines.

Herring also introduced the concept of Emergency Questions on the podcast, apparent last-ditch gambits to avoid awkward silences with his celebrity guests, which took the form of left-field questions to ensure his interviewees went beyond simply plugging their latest project.

On his blog, Herring continued: ’I know how much the podcasts have meant to some of you and I am still very proud of them and enjoy doing them (though booking them is a hassle I will be glad to be rid of), but I also think I should get out before the quality starts to dip (from an admittedly low start) or I become resentful of doing it.

’It’s possible I will miss it and that all I actually need is a break and it might come back, but my feeling is that that won’t happen (unless an eccentric millionaire wants to inject a huge amount of cash into the project). 

‘It’s not going away straight away as with Edinburgh shows, the London shows and studio records we already have enough to get us to the end of January 2027, which will mean the show lasted for almost 15 years… The end of January 2027 also marks 19 years since the first Collings and Herrin show where all this began.’

He added that the ‘Book Clubs are a little bit less knockabout’ – and ‘much easier’ to book.

’The downside of the live podcast is that guests have to be available at very specific times, when we have the theatre slot. With book clubs I can do them pretty much whenever the guest is available. As long as we don’t haemorrhage money with it, my interviews will continue.’

He is lined up to interview James Acaster and Isy Suttie on September 28, with two further sessions on October 26 and November 16 still to be booked.

’I don’t know who will be the final guest,’ he said, adding: ‘I know I promised it to Tim Minchin, but I doubt he’ll be around in November.

‘If anyone knows Paul McCartney, can you ask him if he’s around on November 16th? But if you want to express appreciation for the show and help it go out with a bang then it’d be lovely to see you at one (or all) of these last three shows.’

Thanking him for the podcast, one fan told him on social media: ‘The Stephen Fry evening gave me courage to be more honest about my own mental struggles - changed my life.’

To which Herring replied: ‘It means a lot to me that my (mostly) nonsense has helped people through tough times. Thanks for coming to so many shows!’

Herring is recording five Book Club episodes over the next eight days, including an interview with Charlie Higson about his latest James Bond book, King Zero. He has also begun shooting the indie comedy film Zak The Ripper today, in which he stars alongside fellow comics Sy Thomas and Tiff Stevenson.

Herring has a small role as a detective in the film, which is shooting in Brighton and focuses on Zak Harris, played by Thomas, an unassuming man who finds himself at the centre of a spiralling media storm after inadvertently becoming the prime suspect in a series of high-profile murders.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 8 Sep 2026