Crooked Media is framing this as a match made in progressive podcasting heaven — two politically-minded brands joining forces to deliver top-tier election coverage just when voters need it most. Expect plenty of talk about 'filling a void' in data-driven political journalism.
Insiders say the deal has been in the works for months, with Crooked Media executives actively pursuing Silver after watching their own political podcasts dominate download charts during recent election cycles. The timing — weeks before critical midterms — isn't coincidental. Someone smelled an opportunity.
The podcast relaunches as 'Still Counting' in September 2026, per Variety's August 25 report. Crooked Media finalized the acquisition deal this month to secure the FiveThirtyEight Politics show before midterm season kicked into high gear.
FiveThirtyEight's resurrection under Crooked Media is a power move that could reshape political podcasting heading into 2026 — but questions remain about whether Silver's controversial 2020 election modeling will haunt the relaunch.
Well, well. The most famous name in political polling has officially found new digs. Variety broke the exclusive Monday: Crooked Media has acquired and revived Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, with a fresh coat of paint and a brand-new title.
Come September, the show will relaunch as "Still Counting" — a cheeky nod to its data-driven DNA that also hints at something new under the hood. The timing? Pure calculated chaos: just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections heat up, giving Crooked Media's expanded political portfolio some serious firepower.
Silver isn't coming alone this time. Clare Malone and Galen Druke — both veterans of the original FiveThirtyEight operation — will join him at the relaunched table. That's three voices with deep roots in electoral modeling, swing-state analysis, and the kind of number-crunching that made FiveThirtyEight a household name during its ESPN/ABC years.
Crooked Media, best known for "Pod Save America" and its constellation of anti-Trump resistance podcasts, is clearly making a play for the data-curious progressive audience that wants more than hot takes. The acquisition marks quite the fall and rise for Silver's political modeling empire. FiveThirtyEight launched under ESPN in 2014, became a polling powerhouse during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, then faced massive scrutiny after its high-profile miss on the 2020 presidential race — the model gave Joe Biden an 89% chance of winning, which, well, technically happened, but the confidence intervals and swing-state projections drew fierce criticism from both sides of the aisle.
Silver eventually decamped for ABC/Disney, where FiveThirtyEight continued as a multimedia operation before eventually being shuttered in recent years. Now comes the real question: Can "Still Counting" avoid the pitfalls that plagued its predecessor? Crooked Media has built a media empire on anti-establishment energy and fierce political commentary, but rigorous statistical modeling requires a different kind of credibility.
Silver's brand took genuine hits after 2020 — critics accused him of overconfident projections and tunnel vision toward certain predictive models. Will audiences trust the relaunch, or will old wounds fester? The first episodes drop next month, right into peak midterm coverage season.
Buckle up. For more on this developing story, head to Variety's original reporting.
