The most defensible estimate as of April 13, 2026 is that the My Favorite Murder podcast brand generated roughly $15 million in annual revenue at its 2019 peak, according to a Forbes report that also clocked 35 million downloads per month at that time. The brand has grown since then, added a full podcast network (Exactly Right), signed major platform deals, and as of January 26, 2026 launched an exclusive video podcasting deal on Netflix. So when someone searches "My Favorite Murder net worth," the honest answer is: the number depends heavily on what exactly you are measuring, and the figure is almost certainly higher today than it was in 2019. Here is how to break it all down.
My Favorite Murder Net Worth: How Much They Earn
Marcus Feldman
13 Apr 2026
What 'My Favorite Murder net worth' actually refers to
This is the most important clarification to make upfront. The phrase "My Favorite Murder net worth" blends at least three different things that people tend to conflate: (a) the personal net worth of hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark as individuals, (b) the annual revenue or total brand value of the My Favorite Murder podcast itself, and (c) the broader Exactly Right Media network that Kilgariff and Hardstark founded in 2018, which now houses multiple shows and has signed deals with Stitcher and iHeartMedia. These are related but they are not the same number. A podcast brand's gross revenue is not the same as the hosts' personal take-home, and a network's deal value is not the same as either. This article covers all three, but separates them clearly so you can use whichever figure actually answers your question.
Who the money flows to: the hosts, the network, and the producer
Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are both hosts and the business owners behind Exactly Right Media. They are not just talent collecting a paycheck from a third-party network. They founded Exactly Right in 2018 as the organizational home for My Favorite Murder and a growing slate of other true-crime and comedy podcasts. That distinction matters enormously for estimating their wealth: as owner-operators of the network, they capture not just host fees but also advertising revenue, platform deal proceeds, and any equity value built into the business entity. Their production partner and longtime collaborator Steven Ray Morris, who has served as producer and audio engineer since the show's early days, is a key part of the creative and operational labor, but is not typically described as an equity owner in Exactly Right Media.
The way commercial value is structured, most of the money flows to Exactly Right Media as a business, not directly or separately to each host as an individual. When iHeartMedia signed on as the exclusive sales, marketing, and distribution partner for Exactly Right's premium podcasts including My Favorite Murder, that deal ran through the network entity. The same was true of the earlier Stitcher arrangement, which The Wall Street Journal reported was worth approximately $10 million over two years. So when you see a "personal net worth" figure for Kilgariff or Hardstark on a celebrity net worth site, you should read it as a rough proxy for their share of the business value, not a bank-account snapshot.
How podcast net worth estimates are built
There is no single authoritative source that publishes My Favorite Murder's financials. The show is not publicly traded, and neither Kilgariff nor Hardstark has disclosed a precise income figure in a verified public statement. What researchers do instead is aggregate publicly documented revenue signals and build a range. The main inputs are: advertising CPM rates applied to documented download counts, platform deal valuations from press releases or investor materials, touring gross estimates from counted show dates and typical venue sizes, merchandise price points from the official store, and any confirmed licensing or syndication deals. Each of these inputs introduces uncertainty, which is why the output is always a range rather than a single clean number.
This is the same methodology used across entertainment finance analysis. Whether you are looking at the net worth of actors and actresses or the hosts of a major podcast franchise, the approach is the same: identify documented income channels, apply conservative and aggressive assumptions to each, and build a range. The honest version always shows the range, not just the midpoint.
The best current estimate and how it is built
The most credible documented figure comes from Forbes, which in February 2020 placed My Favorite Murder's 2019 earnings at approximately $15 million. That figure was derived from 35 million monthly downloads, which at standard true-crime podcast CPM rates of $25 to $50 per thousand downloads, generates roughly $10 million to $21 million in annual advertising revenue alone before any other income is counted. That math roughly validates the Forbes number as a floor-to-midpoint for 2019.
As of April 2026, several factors have changed upward. The Exactly Right network now includes additional shows beyond My Favorite Murder, expanding total ad inventory. The iHeartMedia distribution and sales partnership, confirmed through a public investor release, represents a major commercial infrastructure upgrade compared to earlier arrangements. And the Netflix exclusive video podcasting deal that launched January 26, 2026 adds an entirely new licensing revenue channel that did not exist in 2019. On the other hand, the overall podcast advertising market has experienced volatility, and download figures for established shows can plateau or decline as competition increases.
Taking all of this together, a defensible range for the combined Exactly Right Media business value (which is the most meaningful interpretation of "My Favorite Murder net worth") sits between $20 million and $40 million as of 2026, with Kilgariff's and Hardstark's individual effective net worths each estimated by various celebrity tracking sites in the $5 million to $15 million range depending on assumed ownership splits and how much of the business value has been realized in cash versus equity. These are ranges, not audited figures.
The main income drivers, broken down
Advertising and sponsorships
Podcast advertising has been the backbone of My Favorite Murder's revenue since the beginning. The show operates on a host-read ad model, which commands premium CPM rates compared to programmatic audio. At 35 million monthly downloads (the 2019 figure), even a conservative $25 CPM generates about $10.5 million annually from advertising alone. Advertising representation has moved across partners over time, from Midroll Media in 2017 to Stitcher to the current iHeartMedia sales arrangement, each transition reflecting the show's growing negotiating leverage. The Exactly Right network's advertising page routes buyers through the platform's sales team, which is standard for scaled podcast networks and indicates a professional, institutionalized ad sales operation rather than a solo creator's direct deal-making.
Platform and network deals
The documented Stitcher deal, reported by The Wall Street Journal at approximately $10 million over two years, is the clearest public data point for what a platform will pay for exclusive partnership with Exactly Right. The iHeartMedia partnership that followed is structured as an exclusive sales, marketing, and distribution arrangement for Exactly Right's premium podcasts. These deals typically include upfront guarantees, revenue sharing, and development funds. They are not usually disclosed in full detail publicly, but their existence and scale are confirmed through investor and press releases.
Live shows and touring
My Favorite Murder has an active live touring schedule. The official live page lists ticketed shows with early-access purchasing tiers, and specific tour dates like the documented Pasadena, CA show on October 28, 2025 give a sense of the cadence and geography. Theater and mid-size venue shows for popular podcasts typically run 500 to 3,000 seats at $30 to $75 per ticket. If the show averages 20 to 30 dates per year at 1,500 seats and $50 average ticket price, that is $1.5 million to $2.25 million in gross ticket revenue before fees, venue splits, and production costs. Net touring income is typically 20% to 40% of gross for performers at this scale.
Merchandise
The officially licensed My Favorite Murder merch store sells apparel and accessories at price points typical of branded podcast merchandise, with items like shirts and hoodies publicly listed. Merch revenue for a show with a dedicated fan community (the "Murderinos") can be meaningful but is rarely the largest income channel. At $40 average selling price and even 20,000 units annually, gross merch revenue would be around $800,000, with margins depending heavily on whether the operation is in-house or through a third-party fulfillment partner.
Fan subscriptions and memberships
The show's Fan Cult subscription program, documented through official rules pages and membership materials on the brand's site, represents a recurring revenue stream. Subscription tiers for podcast fan clubs typically range from $5 to $15 per month. Even at 10,000 paying members and $7 average monthly, that is $840,000 annually. The actual subscriber count is not publicly disclosed, but the program's organized structure and documented giveaway programs suggest it is an active, maintained channel.
Netflix and licensing
The January 2026 Netflix exclusive video podcasting deal is the newest documented revenue channel. Netflix licensing deals for exclusive content typically involve a flat licensing fee, revenue sharing, or a combination. The specific terms have not been publicly disclosed, but Netflix's entry into podcast video content is a significant development, and exclusive deals of this kind have historically ranged from low seven figures to significantly higher depending on audience size and exclusivity scope. This channel did not exist in the 2019 Forbes estimate and is a meaningful reason the 2026 brand value should be estimated higher.
How reliable are these estimates?
The honest answer is: moderately reliable at the range level, and not reliable as precise single numbers. Most celebrity net worth sites use methods that Wikipedia has noted are based on incomplete public data and proprietary algorithms that lack disclosed methodology, sometimes without the financial expertise their confident figures might imply. That applies directly to any site that lists "My Favorite Murder net worth: $X million" without explaining what it is measuring or how it arrived there. The Forbes 2019 figure is more credible because it names a methodology (downloads times CPM), but it is still an estimate, not an audited figure.
The confidence level is highest for the advertising component (because download counts and CPM benchmarks are relatively well-documented in the podcast industry), moderate for platform deal values (because some deals have been partially confirmed through press and investor materials), and lowest for personal net worth figures (because private equity, taxes, business expenses, and individual spending are entirely undisclosed). This same pattern of layered uncertainty applies across entertainment net worth research whether you are analyzing podcast hosts or, say, cast members from My Big Fat Fabulous Life, where reality TV salaries similarly mix confirmed and estimated components.
Fan-sourced information, such as Reddit discussions about venue ticket demand, should be treated as anecdotal. It can directionally confirm that demand is high, but it is not a substitute for documented revenue data. Treat it as a sanity check, not a primary input.
| Income Channel | Estimated Annual Range | Confidence Level | Key Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising (podcast) | $8M – $18M | High | Depends on current download count, which is not publicly updated as of 2026 |
| Platform/network deals | $3M – $7M annualized | Moderate | Exact terms of iHeart and Netflix deals not disclosed |
| Live touring | $300K – $900K net | Moderate | Depends on dates counted and venue split assumptions |
| Merchandise | $400K – $1M | Low-Moderate | Unit sales volume not disclosed |
| Fan subscriptions (Fan Cult) | $500K – $1.5M | Low | Subscriber count not public |
| Netflix licensing (2026) | $1M – $5M+ | Low | Deal terms not disclosed; new channel as of Jan 2026 |
How to verify and update this estimate yourself today
The good news is that most of the inputs above are checkable using publicly available sources, and you can update the estimate any time new information surfaces. Here is a practical checklist for replicating this analysis yourself.
- Check the current distribution and ad sales partner: as of 2026, iHeartMedia is confirmed as the exclusive sales, marketing, and distribution partner for Exactly Right Media. The iHeartMedia investor relations page and press releases are the best place to catch any changes.
- Look for updated download or listener figures: the podcast industry occasionally publishes charts and audience data through platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart. If My Favorite Murder surfaces in any published top-show rankings with associated metrics, use that to update the CPM-based advertising estimate.
- Count current tour dates: go to the official My Favorite Murder live page, count all upcoming and recently completed dated shows, estimate venue capacity from venue names (most venue capacities are publicly listed), and apply a ticket price range from the site's own ticketing pages.
- Record merch price points: visit the official merch store, note the product catalog and prices, and apply your own conversion-rate assumption based on the show's social following as a proxy for potential buyers.
- Search for any new platform or licensing announcements: the Netflix deal announced January 2026 was documented through Wikipedia and press coverage. Set a Google Alert for 'Exactly Right Media' and 'My Favorite Murder deal' to catch future announcements.
- Check investor and press materials for iHeartMedia: public companies like iHeartMedia file investor materials that sometimes reference their podcast partners and audience metrics, giving you a secondary confirmation of distribution scale.
- Cross-reference any celebrity net worth site numbers against the Forbes 2019 benchmark: if a site claims a number dramatically higher or lower than what the download-times-CPM math supports, that is a signal to be skeptical. The $15 million 2019 figure from Forbes is your most credible historical anchor.
- Distinguish personal net worth from brand revenue: if you want Kilgariff's or Hardstark's individual net worth, note that the brand revenue estimate above is pre-tax, pre-expense gross. Actual personal wealth depends on ownership percentages, salary draws, distributions, and personal spending, none of which are public.
This kind of revenue-channel modeling is the same approach used for niche entertainment figures across formats. For comparison, researchers apply the same logic to shows like Life Below Zero cast members, where a mix of TV appearance fees, personal brand deals, and business income must be disaggregated to get at a meaningful individual number. The methodology is consistent even when the specifics differ.
Pulling it all together: what the number actually means
If you landed here because you wanted a single number, here is the most defensible summary as of April 13, 2026: the My Favorite Murder podcast brand and its parent Exactly Right Media generate estimated annual revenue in the range of $13 million to $32 million depending on the year and which channels you count, with 2019's documented $15 million as the most credible historical anchor. The brand's total accumulated business value, if valued as a media company at typical podcast network multiples of 3x to 6x revenue, could place Exactly Right Media's enterprise value somewhere between $40 million and $90 million as a rough range. Karen Kilgariff's and Georgia Hardstark's individual effective net worths, after factoring in their ownership positions, taxes, and years of income, are most commonly estimated in the $5 million to $15 million range each, though those figures carry significant uncertainty.
The Netflix deal starting January 2026 is the single biggest wild card for the current estimate. Licensing arrangements of this kind can meaningfully shift both annual income and perceived brand value. Until terms are disclosed, treat any 2026 estimate as a range with an upward skew relative to prior years. The same intellectual honesty about ranges versus point estimates applies whether you are researching a podcast empire or looking up something like Randy from Say Yes to the Dress and his net worth: the methodology of checking documented income channels and being transparent about what you do not know is what separates a defensible estimate from a made-up number.
FAQ
Why do different websites give wildly different “My Favorite Murder net worth” numbers? (What are they actually measuring?)
A single “my favorite murder net worth” number usually breaks down into (1) annual brand revenue, (2) enterprise value of the parent company (Exactly Right Media) if you treat it like a business, and (3) each host’s personal net worth proxy based on assumed ownership. If a site gives one figure, it’s often mixing these, which is why you should prefer ranges and confirm what the number is meant to measure.
If I want to reproduce your range myself, what order should I plug the revenue channels into?
Use download-driven ad revenue to estimate the floor, then add incremental channels you can plausibly date, such as touring growth year over year, merchandise trends, subscription rollups, and the new Netflix video licensing starting January 2026. Finally, apply business-level valuation logic (multiples) only after you’ve summed annual cash-generating revenue channels, not before.
Does a higher “revenue” estimate automatically mean a higher “net worth” estimate?
Treat “revenue” and “profit” separately. Even if you estimate gross income from ads, touring, merch, and licensing, the net effect depends on production costs, staff payroll, studio and editing, ad ops fees, touring staffing, refunds/chargebacks, and revenue share with platforms like iHeartMedia. That’s why net worth estimates often look smaller than revenue estimates when modeled conservatively.
How can ad revenue estimates be wrong if I only know total downloads?
If you only rely on monthly download counts, you can undercount revenue. Host-read ad inventory, ad pricing variation by geography and season, and differences between programmatic and direct-sold segments can shift effective CPM. That’s why a download-to-CPM approach is useful, but you should still bracket it with assumptions about ad load and seller (sales house) structure.
Why is the hosts’ personal net worth often less reliable than the network revenue estimate?
In most podcast network setups, the sales and distribution partner arrangement sits at the network level, meaning the hosts do not simply “collect” a fixed percentage of every ad dollar. The practical implication is that celebrity-net-worth sites may overstate or understate personal wealth if they assume a direct talent revenue share that is not how the contract cash flows through the entity.
What’s the biggest mistake people make when estimating touring income for a podcast like this?
Touring is easiest to estimate on gross ticket receipts, but the “net to the performers” is sensitive to who owns the show, management splits, promoter terms, and venue costs. A common mistake is using an overly optimistic net margin. If you are being conservative, model performer net as a smaller slice of gross and explicitly account for fees and production.
Is merch a major part of “My Favorite Murder net worth,” or do I overvalue it?
Merch revenue can be real, but it is usually not the primary driver compared with ads, licensing, and touring for large podcast brands. The key caveat is margin: whether the store is operated in-house or via third-party fulfillment can dramatically change what “revenue” becomes after costs. If you only estimate unit sales times price, you may overshoot net contribution.
How reliable is the Fan Cult subscription channel estimate if subscriber numbers are not public?
Fan club revenue is typically modest relative to the largest revenue drivers, but it can matter for stability because it is recurring. The edge case is churn and promotional giveaway spend, which can lower net receipts. If subscriber counts are not published, you should treat the subscription line as a range and not a point estimate.
How should I adjust my estimate once the Netflix deal starts?
Yes, the Netflix video deal is the main reason to keep the 2026 figure range-wide. The uncertainty is not just size, it is structure (flat fee vs revenue share vs hybrid). Until terms are disclosed, any estimate should skew upward but still reflect that licensing deals sometimes pay less than a revenue-multiple model would imply.
What’s a quick way to sanity-check whether my channel estimates contradict each other?
Validate by checking consistency between channels. For example, if you assume 35 million monthly downloads, but then you also assume ad CPMs that are far outside typical ranges, the implied ad revenue might contradict the modeled total revenue. A quick sanity check is to make sure the advertising line is compatible with your overall annual revenue target before you add smaller channels.
What are the limitations of applying a revenue multiple to estimate Exactly Right Media’s value?
Assume “not publicly audited” means you cannot confirm equity value directly. Business value depends on retained earnings, debt, cash on hand, and how much of the brand is actually owned versus licensed or contracted. If you use a 3x to 6x revenue multiple, you should treat it as a rough enterprise-value lens, not a liquidation value or a precise shareholder figure.
How can I tell whether a “net worth” figure is more likely a guess than a method-based estimate?
If you see a “net worth” headline number without stating what it represents, pause. A practical test is to ask: does it specify whether the figure is personal wealth, annual revenue, or enterprise value, and does it provide a method (even a rough one)? Without that, the number is often an algorithmic guess that may combine categories incorrectly.
What changes besides downloads would most likely move the net worth range up or down?
Watch for structural changes that alter the revenue mix, even if downloads stay steady, such as moving ad sales houses, changing sponsorship formats, adding video distribution, or expanding the catalog under Exactly Right. These can shift effective pricing and licensing opportunities, so your 2026 estimate should be updated when deal structure changes rather than only when download counts change.
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