• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

For all their political content, podcasts are largely an entertainment medium. And YouTube is feeding that idea by launching a weekly chart of the most popular podcasts. 

Just as you can go to Billboard for the weekly music charts, now you can go to YouTube for the Weekly Podcasts Shows chart. 

There are some differences, of course. For one, the YouTube chart shows you only what is popular on YouTube--there are other listings. For another, the top 10 or 20 really are filled with political content, starting with Joe Rogan. Tucker Carlson hits at 18, Megyn Kelly at 19 and Ross Coulhart at 21. 

Here is the top 10 for the week running from May 5-May 11:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience
2. Kill Tony
3. Rotten Mango
4. 48 Hours
5. The Meidas Touch Podcast
6. H3 Podcast
7. Club Shay Shay
8. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
9. Smash Reads Reddit Stories
10. Dr Insanity

YouTube reports that its podcasts pull more than 1 billion monthly active viewers. And it cites an Edison Research finding that YouTube is the most frequently used service for podcast listening in the U.S. 

Still, it is something publishers might want to look in on. 

Podcasts are a growing ancillary service for numerous publications. And there are ever-more ingenious ways of serving targeted podcast advertising. 

It's something to follow every week.