The progressive Young Turks Show gets more YouTube views in 2008 cycle than McCain

In Obama era, "the web is the future, radio is the past – the right just doesn't get that."

LOS ANGELES – The Young Turks, a popular web-based politics and entertainment talk show, broke 50 million YouTube views on Wednesday, making it one of the most watched YouTube channels ever.

With a staff of just five people, the progressive Young Turks Show has received almost twice as many views this election cycle as former presidential nominee John McCain's YouTube channel (25.7 million) and half as many hits as President-Elect Barack Obama's (113.6 million), which was run by an Internet staff of 95. The show's explosive success is proof that progressives are mastering the web with numbers that make the die-hard-red talk radio world green with envy.

"We're also one of the leading shows on XM satellite radio, but in politics the web is the future – the right just doesn't get that." said Young Turks founder and host Cenk Uygur, who lives in Los Angeles. "We are so proud of what we've built with The Young Turks and our audience is only growing as people increasingly turn to the Internet for news."

The show has hosted political leaders like Senator Ted Kennedy and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as well as a diverse range of celebrities and thought leaders from Obama Girl to Alan Greenspan, bringing in a wide demographic of viewers.

Founded in 2002, The Young Turks was the first nationwide progressive talk show and first live daily Internet TV show. Hundreds of thousands of fans tune in to You Tube each day to watch the show's smart, irreverent, and entertaining look at politics, pop culture, and current affairs. Thousands more watch and listen on XM radio and AirAmericaRadio.com. Over two million people watch or listen to the show weekly.

In addition to drawing millions of viewers each month, The Young Turks have proven they are a critical part of progressive politics. In 2007, The Young Turks were among the first to urge Democrats to stop treating FOX as a legitimate news network, leading to a progressive coalition stopping two planned Democratic presidential debates hosted by the right-leaning network. This chain of events laid the groundwork for Barack Obama and his staff to recently begin publicly marginalizing FOX.

In addition to hosting The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur is one of the Huffington Post's most popular bloggers and regularly appears as a TV commentator on MSNBC and CNN Headline News. He is joined each day in the studio by co-host Ana Kasparian, and staffers David Koller, Jayar Jackson, and Jesus Godoy.

More at: http://www.theyoungturks.com/