People who think they know Billy Bush may be surprised this week when he unveils a new video podcast.
“What this show will deliver is the real me — real unadulterated, unfiltered opinion, no fear, a great sense of humor,” says Bush during an interview. “I can’t wait, and I don’t give a s—t. I’m the head of H.R.”
Bush is known for his many years of hosting entertainment-news programs such as NBCUniversal’s “Access Hollywood” and, most recently, Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Extra.” But he sees an opportunity to put on an unbridled show that will have him talking sports and politics, interviewing celebrities in no-holds-barred fashion and giving fans behind-the-scenes stories collected after more than two decades of covering Hollywood.
The new program, “Hot Mics with Billy Bush,” will stream twice a week, starting Monday, January 13. The program will airs live Mondays and Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on TuneIn at TuneIn.com/HotMics and on YouTube.com/@HotMicsWithBillyBush. It will also be made available for on-demand listening. Over time, says Bush, he hopes the show will eventually run four times a week, Monday through Thursday.
Bush intends to use his first program to talk about its title, which many people will likely understand without being told.
“A hot mic was the thing that led to my silencing, and now the hot mics are the vehicle by which I find an authentic, real voice,” he says. His first guest will be Megyn Kelly.
Bush found himself out of work for three years after a surreal incident in which a 2016 “Access” outtake was released showing then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump telling Bush about how he was able to sexually assault women. Information about the incident leaked from NBCUniversal and broke in The Washington Post, and Bush, who by then had moved over to NBC’s “Today,” lost his job. Eventually, so did “Access” executive producer Rob Silverstein.
“I was obliterated,” says Bush, who spent his time mulling his downfall and trying to move past it. He eventually found his way back to mainstream media as a host at “Extra.” Now, he and Silverstein hope to stand out in a less traditional field.
Bush says he has enlisted a sponsor, LA Golf, and is a part owner of the program, along with an investor he declined to name. “He’s a buddy, a significant investor, a very powerful man in Hollywood who likes me personally,” says Bush. “He is personally putting in some dough. I put some dough in. The money is there.”
In a different era, Silverstein says, he and Bush would have to worry about the marketing plan a media company devised for them, and whether Bush’s unvarnished stylings would clear TV-station standards. Now, he says, big media outlets are supporting raw content. Just look at the success of Pat McAfee, the pair notes, who gets a daily show on ESPN despite a slew of controversial remarks made by the host.
“We used McAfee as the example” when planning the program, says Silverstein.
Such stuff is being increasingly tolerated because younger news aficionados are signing up for less-formal information sources. Chatty newsletters, wordy Substacks and quirky TikTok videos and Instagram stories rely more heavily on personality and emotion than do their TV and old-school print counterparts. If TV won’t allow such stuff, there are plenty of video platforms that will. Aside from traditional advertising, says Silverstein, there are plans in place to monetize clips of the program across social venues.
“We are doing this with no gatekeepers,” says Silverstein. “Trying to sell a show these days is so archaic. So this is the greatest way of doing it. We’ve got a sponsor. We’ve got a big-time backer. We don’t need some development plan.” Thanks to streaming video and digital media, says Bush, “if the show is good, they’ll find you.”