Alex Cooper got famous by turning her raunchy, unfiltered dating-and-sex podcast Call Her Daddy into a viral hit that quickly became one of the biggest shows in the world, then parlaying that into huge deals with Barstool Sports, Spotify, and later SiriusXM.

Quick Scoop: How Did Alex Cooper Get Famous?

Alexandra “Alex” Cooper’s rise really starts in 2018, when she and her then- roommate Sofia Franklyn launched Call Her Daddy from a New York City apartment. The show’s “female locker-room talk” style—explicit sex stories, blunt dating advice, and comedy—stood out in a male-dominated podcast space and caught attention fast.

Within just a couple of months, the audience exploded: downloads reportedly jumped from around 12,000 to about 2 million, which is viral-level growth for a new show. That early spike made them attractive to Barstool Sports, whose founder Dave Portnoy signed them on a reported salary of around $70,000 and gave the show a bigger platform and built-in audience.

From there, Cooper leaned into her persona: blunt, funny, and very open about sex, breakups, and messy 20-something life, which helped her develop a fiercely loyal, mostly young female audience. Her willingness to speak in the same language as her listeners—like a chaotic but confident friend—made people feel like they were in a private group chat, not listening to a polished “brand.”

From Viral Podcast to Big-Money Deals

As Call Her Daddy grew, Cooper turned early virality into serious business.

  • The show became one of the most popular podcasts globally, especially among women.
  • In 2021, Alex Cooper signed a three-year exclusive deal with Spotify reportedly worth about $60 million, instantly putting her among the highest-paid podcasters in the world and earning her the label “arguably the most successful woman in podcasting.”
  • In 2024, she reportedly signed a further deal with SiriusXM worth around $124–125 million, cementing Call Her Daddy as a full-blown media empire rather than “just” a podcast.

Behind the scenes, part of how she got famous was not just shock value but smart repositioning. Initially, the show was mostly wild hookup stories and “how-to” style dating content; over time she pivoted toward high-profile celebrity interviews and deeper emotional conversations about relationships, identity, and mental health. That rebrand helped her stay relevant as her original audience got older and the internet moved beyond purely shock-based content.

Key Ingredients in Her Rise

You can think of Alex Cooper’s fame as a combo of timing, personality, and business moves:

  1. Timing and platform
    • She launched Call Her Daddy right as podcasts and “sex-positive” conversations were hitting mainstream culture, especially among Gen Z and young millennials.
 * Signing with Barstool Sports gave her instant distribution, marketing, and controversy-fueled visibility.
  1. Persona and authenticity
    • Cooper built her brand on being unapologetically blunt, funny, and vulnerable about things many people usually hide—hookups, breakups, therapy, and insecurity.
 * Listeners felt like they knew her personally, which is powerful for building parasocial loyalty and repeat listening.
  1. Interview style and evolution
    • When she shifted into deeper, more structured celebrity interviews, she came in prepared, asked personal but empathetic questions, and created what guests described as a “safe” environment.
 * That mix of emotional depth and viral soundbites kept the show trending on social media, which fed back into podcast growth.
  1. Business savvy
    • Cooper treated Call Her Daddy as a brand, not just a show—spinning it into a broader media presence, launching new ventures like the Unwell Network (a Gen Z-focused podcast/lifestyle network), and partnering with major platforms and sponsors.
 * The massive Spotify and SiriusXM deals turned her into a headline “podcast mogul,” which in itself amplified her fame.

Forum & “Latest News” Vibes

If you look at how people talk about her online now, the conversation tends to split into a few camps:

  • Some see her as a blueprint for turning internet personality into serious wealth and media power, especially for women in a male-dominated podcasting world.
  • Others debate her pivot —whether the show is “less fun” now that it’s more polished and interview-focused, or whether this evolution is exactly why she’s still relevant in the mid-2020s.
  • There’s also ongoing commentary on the earlier Barstool-era drama and contract disputes, which added to her public profile by keeping her in headlines beyond just the podcast content itself.

As of the mid-2020s, she’s less “just a raunchy podcast host” and more a strategic media operator who used that original controversy and virality to build a high-value, long-term brand.

TL;DR

Alex Cooper got famous by launching Call Her Daddy in 2018, going viral with raw, sex-positive “locker-room talk,” then using that momentum—and some very strategic pivots and platform deals—to turn the show into a massive, multi- million-dollar media empire.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.