We Speak Podcast

Joe Budden Takes His Network to Television Without Giving Up the Keys

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2026

Joe Budden. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Joe Budden has spent years telling podcasters that ownership is the whole game. His newest deal is him practicing it in public. On November 10, Budden announced a multi-year television partnership with REVOLT that brings programming from the Joe Budden Network to a national TV audience, anchored by a new weekly series, Joe Budden Network Presents, premiering Friday, November 13 at 10 PM ET.

The 20-episode series pulls the biggest conversations, moments and personalities from across Budden’s network, including The Joe Budden Podcast, Pod Wives and The Ian and Marc Show. Episodes air Fridays on REVOLT TV, with streaming available Saturdays at 5 PM ET through the REVOLT app and website. The agreement was negotiated with the involvement of Budden’s longtime manager and business partner, Ian Schwartzman, and the financial terms were not disclosed.

The detail that matters most is the structure. Rather than selling his programming outright, Budden entered a content licensing arrangement: REVOLT gets to air selected clips and segments, while he keeps ownership of his intellectual property, his catalog and his creative control. The network gains a new revenue stream and a television audience without Budden surrendering the asset he has spent a decade building.

It is the latest chapter in one of podcasting’s most instructive second acts, a former recording artist who turned a microphone and an opinion into an independent media company, and who now licenses his way onto television instead of being bought by it. For every creator watching the podcast business consolidate around big buyers, the Budden deal is a different blueprint: keep the keys, rent the reach.

We Speak Podcast

Hallmark’s Leading Men Trade Scripted Romance for Unscripted Banter on ‘The Mr. Nice Guys’

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2026

We Speak Media

Paul Campbell, co-host of The Mr. Nice Guys. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Three of the most familiar faces in made-for-TV romance have decided to find out what happens without a script. Benjamin Ayres, Paul Campbell and Wes Brown, leading men who have headlined stacks of Hallmark movies between them, launched their new podcast, The Mr. Nice Guys, on Thursday, November 12, arriving with a two-episode premiere at 9 AM Pacific / noon Eastern.

The pitch, in their own words, is admirably honest: “Three guys. One podcast. Absolutely no idea what we’re doing.” That self-deprecation is the concept. Where their day jobs ask them to be charming on cue in small towns with perfect snowfall, The Mr. Nice Guys lets three friends and longtime colleagues talk like themselves, and the announcement was met with a wave of support from across their extended Hallmark family, a ready-made first audience of loyal viewers who already treat these actors like holiday-season relatives.

The timing is smart. All three men are at the center of Hallmark’s year-round movie machine, and the network’s audience is one of the most devoted in television. A podcast gives that audience a weekly, unscripted version of the personalities they usually only see in 82-minute installments, and gives the actors a property they own and shape themselves.

Episodes are available to watch and listen to now, with more at TheMrNiceGuys.com. Whether the nicest guys in the business can survive a format with no script, no snow machine and no guaranteed happy ending is exactly the fun of it, and based on the premiere-day response, their audience is more than happy to find out with them.