Is Kj S Keluar Sekejap Podcast Losing Its Appeal After An Alarming Slump In Viewership Detected

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AS Madani government backers grilled Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who was deemed “Malaysia’s best premier since 2009” by BERSIH over his RM177 mil ‘heist’, a political observer has trained his gun on the Keluar Sekejap podcast which viewership has declined substantially.
From garnering 250K views and above per episode previously, 𝖠𝖿𝗋𝖺𝗅’𝗌 (@AfralAbdullah) noticed that the podcast co-hosted by UMNO ‘renegades’ Khairy Jamaluddin (KJ) and Shahril Hamdan has shrunk in its viewership “by more than half” in the last 10 episodes to “only around 100K plus”.
“Was it that they were getting less popular or viewers realised that their content was getting less and less accurate in substance?” wondered the once self-proclaimed apolitical netizen on X.

Referring to the podcast’s recently aired 145th episode, 𝖠𝖿𝗋𝖺𝗅’𝗌 expressed uncertainty about the message KJ – the former three-term UMNO Rembau MP – and Shahril – the party’s former information chief – were trying to convey to their audience/public.
Specifically, he pointed to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) seizure of an estimated RM177 mil worth of cash, gold and other loot which made PMX’s predecessor Ismail Sabri one of the key suspects in an on-going corruption probe involving hundreds of millions of ringgit in government funds.

“I opined that it’s obvious both of them are merely beating around the bush over the RM100+ mil issue for reasons best known to them,” contended 𝖠𝖿𝗋𝖺𝗅’𝗌.
“They said MACC did not state the amount and (that) it may be from rumours when in reality, MACC has issued two official statements (on the matter).
“The first one mentioned an amount of RM100+ mil while in the second official statement, MACC mentioned a total of RM170 mil in cash and 16.5kg of gold bars worth at least RM7 mil had been seized.”
Added 𝖠𝖿𝗋𝖺𝗅’𝗌: “That said, is the decline in views to KS (Keluar Sekejap) justified?”
Indeed the post elicited a few noteworthy inputs from some learned commenters. Leading the pack is chartist Thevesh (@Thevesh) who made 𝖠𝖿𝗋𝖺𝗅’𝗌 observation the more empirical with a chart that shows the declining trend in the viewership of the podcast which recently ushered in its second anniversary.

Another commenter observed that the podcast is not only selective with its guest speakers “but more aggressive with some with KJ being quite bias in a lot of things while Shahril is more neutral”. This eventually led him to give up on Keluar Sekejap.

Former Berita Harian crime journalist Saniboey Mohd Ismail (@saniboey) reckoned that a decline is imminent after having aired so many episodes (145 episodes to-date in Keluar Sekejap’s case).
“The challenge is not only to have great guests but correct as you said, to have proper facts & figures as well. This isn’t a decline per se to me but a warning for them to be more sensitive.”

Another commenter reckoned that the podcasters are no longer “fence-sitters” as they might have initially portrayed themselves to be as they gradually “only intended to shoot anyone who disagree with them” when the truth is “they, too, have skeletons (in their closet)”.

The bottom line is, as one commenter summed up, “there’s a need to be careful with snakes” which the poster cheekily remarked, “especially with cobras”.

 - Focus Malaysia

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