How to advertise on The Interview: what it costs, who buys, and how to book

The Interview sells its sponsor inventory per campaign, quoted deal by deal rather than off a public rate card, through The New York Times audio operation. Spotsnow classifies 100% of the show's tracked ads as direct response, and its top advertiser, Visible, has run roughly 6 to 7 ads on the feed. For a buyer weighing this show, that mix means prestige placement inside a blue-chip roster, sold one campaign at a time. Spotsnow estimates all of this from tracked advertiser activity, not audience surveys.

You can see the full profile for The Interview on Spotsnow.

Why The Interview is built for host-read direct response

The Interview is hosted by David Marchese, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, and veteran NYT correspondent Lulu Garcia-Navarro. It sits in the media production category as a New York Times audio property.

Spotsnow attributes a 100% direct-response share to the show. That format leans on codes, vanity URLs, and clean attribution, so a brand can trace a conversion back to the spot. Spotsnow estimates reach at roughly 190,000 listeners per episode, and calls that figure an estimate, not a counted number.

Here the format argument matters more than any price. This is long-form interview journalism. Listeners come for a single sustained conversation, and they stay through the middle of the episode, which is exactly where a host-read borrows its attention. When a sponsor line follows a serious conversation, it inherits the trust the show already built. That is the asset a produced spot on a lighter feed can't rent.

The show's influence is concentrated in the feed and the wider New York Times audio ecosystem rather than spread thin across social platforms. That's a strength for a sponsor: attention lands where the ad runs, not scattered across timelines. The audience skews affluent and educated, slightly female, and is concentrated in the US, with meaningful presence in the UK and Canada, per Spotsnow's estimates.

Who is advertising on The Interview

The roster is large and blue-chip. Spotsnow tracks roughly 100 to 120 brands running recently, weighted toward finance, telecom, and consumer names. Recognizable buyers include Apple Card, AT&T, Squarespace, Etsy, and Uber.

The anchor advertisers, broken down

Visible

Visible sells a digital-first wireless plan. Spotsnow shows it running roughly 6 to 7 ads on the show, with estimated total spend over $500K, classified direct response. A value wireless brand fits here because the audience is cost-aware but digitally native, the kind of professional who acts on a vetted recommendation instead of a store visit.

New York Times

The New York Times promotes its own subscriptions on the feed. Spotsnow shows it running roughly 4 to 5 ads, with estimated total spend over $100K, classified direct response. As the publisher behind the show, it's promoting to an already news-loyal audience, which is about the shortest distance between a listener and a subscription there is.

Olly

Olly makes vitamin and supplement products for everyday wellness. Spotsnow shows it running roughly 4 ads, with estimated total spend over $100K, classified direct response. A wellness brand matches an affluent, slightly female-skewing, health-minded listener base that buys on trust rather than price alone.

The house-ad outlier

The New York Times sits apart from the performance brands. Its reads work an awareness and subscription objective at once, which shows a buyer that a softer, brand-building goal can still earn a place on this feed alongside coded direct response.

All spend figures are Spotsnow estimates.

Why society and culture brands cluster here

The pattern isn't random. A wireless value brand, a supplement maker, and a national newspaper all buy the same thing: a considered audience that finished a serious conversation and is still listening. The hosts carry real journalistic authority, so a sponsor line reads as endorsement rather than interruption. Pair that with listeners who are affluent, educated, and used to paying for things they trust, and you get a room where both a performance offer and a subscription pitch convert. That's why finance, telecom, and wellness keep coming back instead of testing once and leaving.

How your ad could sound

Here's a real host-read from the feed, handed off straight out of the conversation.

What works: the handoff is clean. Lulu Garcia-Navarro closes the segment, names the show, then moves into the sponsor line without a jarring gap, so the read keeps the editorial voice. The benefit is plain-language, not jargon: cost transparency, affordability, and choice. And the claim has a hook a listener remembers, that "OptumRX is driving an industry-first transparency model."

What to improve: the offer is soft. There's no promo code and no urgency, and the destination is a generic vanity URL ("Optum.com slash transparency") that's harder to attribute than a coded link. If you're buying for direct response, ask for a code or a unique landing path so the conversion traces back to this show, not the whole campaign.

View what a great sample ad looks like here.

What makes a show like this convert

1. The format holds attention. Long-form interviews keep listeners through the mid-episode break, which is where a host-read lands and where trust transfers to the sponsor.
2. Host credibility carries the read. Marchese and Garcia-Navarro bring New York Times journalistic authority, so an endorsement reads as vetted rather than paid.
3. The audience buys. Spotsnow describes an affluent, educated, US-concentrated base that acts on recommendations instead of ignoring them.
4. Buyers repeat. Visible's run of roughly 6 to 7 ads is the tell: brands don't re-up on a feed unless the math already worked once.

The Interview in a nutshell

The Interview reaches an estimated 190,000 listeners an episode, an affluent, educated, slightly female-skewing audience concentrated in the US. Visible, the New York Times, and Olly already buy here, mostly on host-read and produced spots that carry an attribution goal. The show is sold per campaign through the New York Times audio operation, not off a rate card. Spotsnow's data leans direct response, so it suits performance buyers who want coded attribution as much as brands chasing prestige association.