Sage Steele Replaces Candace Owens In The Daily Wire & Adam Carolla’s Adult Animated Series ‘Mr Birchum’

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read
2

EXCLUSIVE: TV anchor Sage Steele has replaced Candace Owens in the voice cast of The Daily Wire’s upcoming animated sitcom Mr Birchum, following the latter’s recent exit from the right wing news platform.

The former ESPN anchor joins voice cast of Megyn Kelly, Brett Cooper, Adam Carolla (who created the show), Roseanne Barr, Danny Trejo, Rob Riggle, Patrick Warburton, Tyler Fischer, Alonzo Bodden, Kyle Dunnigan, and Jay Mohr.

More from Deadline

Steele will play the role of Deena, who is married to Mr. Birchum’s best friend Gage. The role was previously due to be played by Owens who exited The Daily Wire last month. Her exit followed clashes with co-founder Ben Shapiro over the Israel-Hamas war.

Carolla voices Mr. Birchum, a no-nonsense teacher navigating Teddy Roosevelt Junior High with his family — Wendi (Kelly), Eddie (Dunnigan), and stepdaughter Jeanie (Cooper). Partnering with his friend Gage (Bodden), Mr. Birchum faces off against a young student named Karponzi (Fischer) who is engaged in various social justice campaigns.

Birchum also has the help of some fantasy mentors – the ghost of his gym teacher, Coach Murphy (Mohr) and childhood frozen dinner icon Burly Man (Warburton). He’ll even get an assist from sick-and-tired, wishes she were retired, Principal Bortles (Barr) when competing with Navy buddies against his Army nemesis Gunderson (Riggle), and reformed gang member Switchblade (Trejo) lends a tattooed hand building a house for charity. The show premieres Sunday, May 12, on DailyWire+.

“When I got the call from Adam and the Daily Wire team to be part of Mr. Birchum, it was a no-brainer for me!” said Steele. “I’m a huge fan of everyone involved and am honored to be included in such a powerhouse lineup of comedians. In this insane cultural moment, it’s more important than ever to speak the truth, even when it’s unpopular. Mr. Birchum does this in such a hilarious fashion, and I’m thrilled to be part of such a fun, unapologetic project.”

While employed by ESPN, Steele made headlines in 2021 for speaking out against the company’s vaccine mandates. Steele later sued ESPN and settled the case in 2023 before departing the sports network. Last month, Bill Maher announced the launch of her eponymous The Sage Steele Show, currently streaming on YouTube, as the first program on his new podcast network Club Random Studios.

DailyWire+’s first animated comedy is produced by David Coleman for Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier for Bonfire Legend, with Daily Wire’s Jeremy Boreing, Ben Shapiro, and Caleb Robinson executive producing. Chassy Media is the physical production company for the show and executive producers for Chassy Media are Adam Carolla and Mike August along with showrunner/executive producer Nate Adams and Supervising Producer Curtis Koller. Mike Lynch is the head writer for the show with additional episodes written by Byron Kavanagh and Mark Hoffmeier.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next