InfoWars, also branded as Real InfoWars, is a comedy and media platform run and owned by American satirical news outlet The Onion which debuted in July 2026. It is a parodic reboot of the original fake news and conspiracy website Infowars created and managed by Alex Jones from 1999 until 2026. The Onion's InfoWars began broadcasting live on YouTube on July 2, 2026, featuring two programs: The Jim Haggerty Show and Emergency with Tim Heidecker.
Contents
History
Pre-debut (2022–2026)
Courts had ordered Jones to pay approximately $1.4 billion in damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after he lost a defamation lawsuit. During Jones' bankruptcy proceedings, Infowars was initially licensed to The Onion in a deal with the court-appointed manager of the property. Although a Texas appeals court officially paused the acquisition following an appeal by Jones, The Onion pressed ahead with the production of its parody programming with comedian Tim Heidecker as creative director.
Speaking in an interview with Time, Tim Heidecker claimed that he initially plans to turn Infowars into a parody of itself, portraying it as a conspiracy media network that mainly feeds on the audience's rage and fear, like Jones did during his management and ownership of it, stating:
I think there'll be a transition phase where we're doing kind of Onion-style parody, satire, reflecting back the absurdities of Infowars and the right-wing media culture. Not so much the political stuff, but sort of just the hacky supplements and trying to bilk your grandparents out of their life savings kind of style.
We want to kind of let that run its course, and play in that sandbox for a little while. Then we just think that that's going to get old, but we'll have built this little brand, or sort of re-established a brand and turn it into a destination for good comedy— a new streaming site, a new comedy platform.
According to Brad Holbrook, who portrays Jim Haggerty, The Onion's head of video, Ryan Natoli, envisioned Haggerty as a disgraced television host running an archetypal populist independent show. Holbrook stated in an interview with AV Club:
I [got] an email from [Onion video head] Ryan Natoli in Chicago. He said, "We're all thinking about Jim Haggerty. Clearly he's been fired from his hosting job, and now he's the Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, jaded, provocateur, conspiracy theorist, angered by the system that did him wrong, so he's going to come after them on a podcast. Could you wear that persona?"
That's right up my alley. I'm not a conspiracy theorist per se, but I've been around the block long enough. I've seen it all, and there's ample reason to be disgusted by what the world is today, and I'd be more than happy to make fun of it any way I could.
Debut and shows (2026–present)
In the first episode of Emergency, Heidecker claimed that Jones died and was replaced with an impostor, presented in the show as fact with a video of him suddenly "popping like a balloon" inside his car. Heidecker had done so as a method of "wish fulfillment" for victims and to attract Jones' attention with a deliberately false, nonsensical death claim. Heidecker does not plan to make Jones the sole focus of Emergency, intending to eventually pivot its format into a platform for new comedians and pay the Sandy Hook families the money he claims "Jones will never pay", and the show's focus into his life "falling apart".
Throughout the streams, The Onion has begun selling merchandise related to both variants of InfoWars, such as "Demon Guard" bandages that promise to protect the wearer from demonic influence, and plushies and stickers of gay frogs, referencing Jones' previous claims of atrazine turning them homosexual.
Overview
Pre-expansion(July 2, 2026 – September 10, 2026)
A weekly InfoWars stream consists of an intro related to "The InfoWars Elf", the show's proposed mascot, which was rejected by The Onion's parent company; Global Tetrahedron, in the show's metafictional narrative, followed by an episode of The Jim Haggerty Show and one of Emergency; with short satirical product infomercials, vertical video sketches, and membership subscription ads for The Onion between them; airing on YouTube each Thursday at 20:00 EDT.
Expansion(September 10, 2026 – present)
A weekly stream of InfoWars consists of an episode of Week of Miracles.
Shows
Just as Jones' original Infowars acts like an online media network/television channel with a programming schedule, the reboot InfoWars has multiple shows aired each week per episode. Separate on-demand episodes of each show and edited VOD versions of the broadcasts may also be uploaded on the YouTube channel between each stream.
Debuted in July 2026
The Jim Haggerty Show: A parodic conspiratorial right-wing video podcast series starring Jim Haggerty, a fictional former morning news show host turned podcaster who used to host Onion News Network's satirical Today Now! segments and previously starred in the web series Porkin' Across America; claiming to speak about governmental misdeeds despite the danger allegedly inherent to the act. Each week, he hosts a guest where he talks about a singular topic for the entirety of the episode, such as CIA cover-ups or Christianity, but rapidly jumps between subtopics between them, often followed by asking the guest about the possibility of being made into a martyr for his claims and stances without actually dying.
Emergency with Tim Heidecker (shortened to Emergency): The first main show hosted on InfoWars where the host, Tim Heidecker, talked about events in the fashion of Alex Jones with the same rapid-fire, conspiratorial style, often stuttering and screaming over his guests and callers. With Heidecker's death within the show's fiction, the show gains a new and it's final host, Phil Braun, on its last episode. On September 10, 2026; it gets a special epilogue spin-off episode with the name Emergency Reunion with Tim Heidecker, where Heidecker (without his Jones impression this time, dropping his onstage character completely) reunites with various cast members without their onstage characters who have previously acted in Emergency.
Debuted in September 2026
The Week of Miracles: A show about evangelists presented by Vic Berger and Ben Craw.
Episodes
Staff
Nick Lutsko, theme song composer and performer
Tim Heidecker, creative director of InfoWars and host of the initial episodes of Emergency
Mia Di Pasquale, head of programming
Ben Collins, the CEO of Global Tetrahedron
Vic Berger and Ben Craw, hosts of Week of Miracles
Cast members
Brent Weinbach as Ben Collins
Anna Konkle as Mia Di Pasquale
Brad Holbrook as Jim Haggerty and the Jim Haggerty chatbot
Erik Russo's back as Alex Jones
Phil Braun as himself, every unspecified Phil on the phone call-ins, and Neil Riker
Troy Dillinger as Dominick Banner
Shinya Miyakoshi as Mr. Takamora
Carmen Christopher as "The Jack-O-Lantern"
Bruce Burns as Stan Bennett
Cindy Jo Hinkleman as herself
Bill Jones as Lester Reeve
Edi Patterson as Chesapeake
Tim Robinson as Ohioan caller Tim
Will Sasso as AJ
Bob Odenkirk as InfoWars network president Bob Tuna
Anthony Atamanuik as Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
James Adomian as Mitch McConnell and Graham Platner
Martha Kelly as a caller
Reception
Alex Jones' reaction
Jones has reacted and commented on The Onion's winning bid for taking over everything related to Infowars and its brand on his X account, as seen on CNN:
Are the Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us, they asked, do they outbid? They said, well, it was competitive. So they changed all the bidding rules, made it secret. Two days ago, I had a bad feeling, I told you that. And just like they tried to shut us down back in late May without a court order, they're supposed to have a court order. There's going to be injuctions filed. About to go live out of Harrison's American Journal studio. I don't know what's going to happen. But I'm going to be here until they come in and turn the lights off.


