SmartLess has turned celebrity chatter into an expensive hobby, with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett ranking fifth on Forbes’ highest-paid podcasters list for 2026, earning an estimated $37 million. The comedy trio has welcomed revealing guests, from Sandra Bullock discussing caregiving realities to Tim Robbins revealing his love for Dungeons & Dragons and John Lithgow sharing his passion for crossword making. Clearly, the conversations are doing more than entertaining listeners.

As if listeners needed another reason to tune in, SmartLess has now added a rather impressive statistical bragging right to its already star-studded résumé.

As Forbes announced its 2026 highest-paid podcasters, SmartLess landed at No. 5 with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes collectively bringing in an estimated $37 million before taxes. The figure covers earnings from June 2025 through June 2026, placing the comedy podcast firmly among the industry’s most lucrative audio ventures. Its pandemic-era beginnings now feel remarkably modest.

The numbers become even more striking when SmartLess is placed alongside the names surrounding it. Joe Rogan led the pack with $82 million, followed by TBPN hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays at $70 million. Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO reached $45 million, while Ashley Flowers’ Crime Junkie followed closely at $42 million, leaving SmartLess only $5 million behind the fourth spot.

As Forbes also revealed, the competition just beyond SmartLess proved equally interesting. Mel Robbins and the Kelce brothers’ New Heights tied for sixth with $35 million each, only $2 million below the celebrity-hosted comedy show. That narrow gap shows how tightly packed the upper tier has become, with enormous audiences translating into remarkably enormous paydays.

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While the co-hosts joke about their made-up rivalry making fun headlines, their actual ranking is no joke and certainly makes one wonder where the staggering earnings came from.

SmartLess has more than celebrity names working in its favor. Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett have built a recognizable interview format around their own comic chemistry, while guests such as Sandra Bullock, Olivia Wilde, Anthony Mackie, and Tim Robbins give each episode fresh star power. The podcast also operates through SiriusXM, adding a major distribution and subscription component to its business.

That combination matters because SmartLess is not relying on one paycheck from one podcast feed. Its celebrity-led episodes help attract listeners, its recognizable hosts strengthen the brand, and its SiriusXM arrangement gives the property another commercial lane beyond traditional podcast advertising. With the audience, talent, distribution, and monetization working together, the formula ultimately helped SmartLess generate Forbes’ estimated $37 million in pretax earnings.

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Are you surprised by SmartLess' massive earnings? Let us know in the comments!