The Adam Friedland Show is a talk show hosted by comedian Adam Friedland, centered on long-form comedic interviews with public figures. Marked by satire and deadpan anti-humor, the show parodies traditional talk shows and takes place on a set modeled after the set of The Dick Cavett Show.
The show, referred to as TAFS for short, has been host to guests from a variety of fields, including athletes (Blake Griffin), musicians (Chance the Rapper), actors (Sarah Jessica Parker), comedians (Shane Gillis), filmmakers (Paul Schrader), businesspeople (Mark Cuban), journalists (Olivia Nuzzi), influencers (Amelia Dimoldenberg), and politicians (Gavin Newsom).
The show was created by Friedland and comedian Nick Mullen and debuted on October 31, 2022. The first iteration, season one, heavily employed meta-comedy and included comedy sketches. Season two ran from May 2025 to May 2026 and marked a shift to a more regular, biweekly format that focused on interviews with Friedland; the show received more critical acclaim in its second season, with GQ calling Friedland a potential "millennial Jon Stewart." In June 2026, the show partnered with Spotify ahead of its third season, which premiered in August 2026.
Contents
Production
Development
From 2016 to 2022, Adam Friedland, Stavros Halkias, and Nick Mullen co-hosted Cum Town, which The New Yorker called one of the most successful comedy podcasts of the decade. When Halkias announced that he was departing Cum Town in June of 2022, Friedland and Mullen ended the show and revealed plans for a spin-off production—The Adam Friedland Show—a YouTube talk show to be hosted by Friedland and produced by Mullen. Turning Friedland, who was often the butt of jokes on Cum Town, into the star of a new program, began as mostly a joke; though, over time he grew into the role.
In August of 2022, Friedland and Mullen began releasing test episodes of The Adam Friedland Show on Patreon while the set was being constructed. These episodes were shot on the unfurnished studio, and episodes of a companion podcast The Adam Friedland Show Podcast began being released as well.
Season one
The set for the show was completed in the fall of 2022 and modeled after that of The Dick Cavett Show. The show aired its first official episode on Halloween, 2022, with Frieldand hosting in a loose brown suit. The first episode saw Adam, co-host Nick Mullen, and guest Shane Gillis all in Halloween costumes throughout the episode, with Mullen as Dracula and Gillis as Frankenstein.
Following the second episode, Mullen stopped appearing as co-host to focus on producing the show and acting in character bits. Most episodes for the rest of the season featured an opening pre-taped sketch taking place behind the scenes of the show, usually with Friedland as himself and Mullen as either himself, the show's producer Dracula, or political blogger Jeff Tiedrich's demented nephew Marty Tiedrich. Two later episodes in the season, the Rob Schneider episode and the Paul Schrader episode, each opened on a more elaborate short film. The Schrader episode featured Adam Friedland's Taxi Driver, an elaborate short about Friedland making a Taxi Driver parody in which he plays all the parts, and the Schneider episode featured Nick & Adam 1998, a short film written and directed by Mullen about 11-year-old versions of Friedland and Mullen going to see the movie The Waterboy. Sopranos star Drea DeMatteo played Friedland's mother.
Friedland said that in 2023, he "decided to start trying to be a good interviewer."
On January 25, 2025, Mullen departed from the show; he continues to be credited as a creator and executive producer. Podcast episodes stopped being released, and the show pivoted to focusing on the YouTube talk show. The show no longer featured an opening sketch, instead just focusing on Friedland's interview.
In February 2025, Friedland began releasing a series of episodes called "The Lost Episodes." These were interviews that were recorded in the studio with Drea DeMatteo, Julian Casablancas, Tom Fontana, and Hasan Piker that were not released during the first season for various reasons.
Season two
In May 2025, trailers began to release for the show, and Friedland began a press tour with a profile in GQ, as well as numerous podcast appearances promoting his show and personal brand. As producers, Friedland was joined by comedian Caleb Pitts, who was also promoted to head writer, and filmmaker Thomas Pistor Eisenman, who also serves as editor.
On May 28, 2025, Friedland released a surprise announcement, revealing that he had been working on a revamped second season of the show. This season would have a regular weekly release of an hour-long talk show episode. This was a large change compared to the first season's sporadic release over a period of over two years, oftentimes with gaps in production of several months.
Friedland's second season earned mainstream acclaim, with several favorable write-ups praising his offbeat interview style, the show's avant-garde production, and his hard-hitting questions. The New Yorker described The Adam Friedland Show as "subversive" and "irresistibly funny".
Friedland's August 27, 2025 interview with Congressman Ritchie Torres, in which Friedland emotionally confronted the politician over his support for Israel, drew a positive response and press coverage, with some calling it a breakthrough moment. The show also received considerable attention for scoring an interview with New York City mayor elect Zohran Mamdani immediately following his victory.
Season three
In June 2026, a new distribution and ad sales partnership with Spotify was announced. As part of the new deal with the company, a World Cup-focused podcast miniseries was produced in collaboration with The Ringer, a Spotify vertical: The Adam Friedland Show Presents: The Beautiful Pod; the show was co-hosted by Friedland and sports commentator Chris Ryan.
Format
The show typically begins with a highlight from the interview, the theme song/opening credits, and a short segment where host Adam Friedland addresses the viewer from a room full of audiovisual equipment. After this introduction portion, an interview with that week's guest usually runs for about an hour with an ad break in the middle. Occasionally, there's a segment in between Friedland's intro and the interview.
For most of the first season, the show opened with a metafictional sketch involving Friedland and co-creator Nick Mullen discussing the show and its production, including their feud with fictional producer Dracula (played by Mullen). In early episodes, it was followed by a late night-style monologue in which Friedland comments on recent events, which was then followed by the interview.
Episodes
The Lost Episodes (2025)
Following Nick Mullen's departure from the show in early 2025, The Adam Friedland Show released a quartet of episodes billed as "The Lost Episodes," inspired by the title of Chappelle's Show's "Lost Episodes." These are interviews that were filmed in studio between 2023 and 2024, with new introductions from Friedland filmed in 2025.
Podcast
The show's companion podcast, The Adam Friedland Show Podcast (similar to Cum Town in format), ran weekly from 2022 to 2025. It ceased airing on the show's shift to the talk show only model in 2025, though audio of the main episodes continue to be released on the podcast feed.
The podcast featured a variety of guests, including podcasters Will Menaker and Brace Belden, comedians Mike Recine, Rick Glassman, Jordan Jensen, Brandon Wardell, and Chris Distefano, as well as Jackass star Steve-O and The Sopranos actor Robert Iler. Friedland's former fiancée Dasha Nekrasova also appeared on a non-interview episode, alongside her Red Scare podcast co-host Anna Khachiyan.
Singer Matty Healy's appearance was a source of controversy, amid rumors of a relationship with Taylor Swift and an apparent call-out by Rina Sawayama during a concert. Healy dismissed the outrage as a "bit mental."