His type of long form interviews would be simply impossible on traditional television (even though it's a podcast, I always watch on Youtube as do many others). He tapped into an unexplored demand that lives directly in the blindspot of the traditional media.

Edit to add: it's pretty hard to imagine a TV broadcaster would try to tap into this niche, imagine a TV channel that has 3 hour interviews uninterrupted by ads (experience using ad blockers), on a wide variety of topics, no filter, across a wide varity of political views.

it's funny, it'd be easy for TV to do it. There's a lot of empty 24hour news channels out there. Putting a 3 hour interview on at 10pm and running it till 1am and then on repeat at 10am the next day would be a pretty simple way to build out some really intersting content. The only thing you'd need would be discipline to keep the producers from cutting into it. But there's a lot of channels out there. There's a lot of space.

Traditional TV executives would never go for it. Even if they did, the inflexibilty of regular TV schedules would still be inferior to listening when you want. Plus as you mention they would have the discipline to not cut into it.

Yes if I had to sum it up in one word "authenticity" would be it. It seems like he truly doesn't care what other people think of him. If he thinks something, he'll say it (but not in an arrogant way like Trump). If the "mainstream media" doesn't approve of a guest on his show, doesn't bother him, he's still willing to hear them out - and more importantly will call them out on their bullshit. He doesn't even pretend to give in to the identity politics bullshit that for whatever reason I can not comprehend has taken over the public narrative.

This is not something you see on mainstream media, where everyone is carefully crafting their words and hedging every statement to ensure they offend as little people as possible, ultimately saying little of interest and disillusioning the public because everyday people feel that no one in power is a real human being who understands them. When someone will just bluntly say the obvious that for whatever reason the establishment won't, it's refreshing.

In addition, he is radically open-minded in a way that's very rare from these kinds of hosts, and people in general. Most people are very rigidly set in their ideologies, which leads to many people sounding like carbon copies of one another (boring). Rogan will consider any idea no matter how outlandish. And he is very curious and asks insightful questions, while knowing when to shut up and let the guest speak (helps that the interviews last 1.5-3 hours).

Also as a comedian, he's significantly more entertaining than your average dry newscaster.

I'm not glorifying Rogan here, just trying to articulate why I enjoy his show, despite the fact that I don't really listen to many other podcasts. He certainly is not perfect and has his weaknesses - for example when discussing technical topics he doesn't dive as deep as I'd like (eg. Elon Musk, John Carmack, Neil DeGrasse Tyson). But overall, he does a great job of bringing interesting guests and getting interesting conversations out of him, so it's not surprising to me that he's so successful.

Exactly. People are starved for authenticity and truth, and the freedom to both express and enjoy it.