Ricky Gervais Show No.1 on iTunes

Well, 24 hours after it launched, the The Ricky Gervais Show has gone straight to the top of the UK iTunes chart apparently outselling the likes of cosy papmeister Jack Johnson and "band of the hour", the Arctic Monkeys. The show, which launched yesterday, now comes with a fee attached, something that's pretty novel for a podcast of this type. In fact, there was much speculation over whether people would be willing to fork out for the downloads, and with this apparent success we can look forward to having to pay for podcasts left, right and centre.

Problem is, those shows are just so conducive to sniggering - not to mention a good few heartfelt guffaws. So I'll probably find myself stumping up the cash without too much of a wrench. After all, if Jack Johnson gets to make money peddling his special brand of busker-lite thrum-thrummery, why shouldn't Ricky, Stephen and especially Karl get a few bob for making us chuckle? More info from the press release follows after the leap.

From Press release.
The FT noted that "if all its former listeners were happy to start paying, the show could rake in some £4.28million in revenues.

Gervais said in the first episode of the new series: "Hello, and welcome to The All New Ricky Gervais Show, with me Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. I'll tell you what's new about it: this time you have to pay for it." Stephen Merchant added: "Ah, well that is a nice new development." At the end of the last series Gervais said they will have to start charging for the podcast because Karl, the producer, is unemployed.