In today’s podcast news roundup, “Behind the Music” is back in audio-only repeats; Sports Illustrated huddles up with iHeartMedia; Audacy is launching podcast discovery and interview show “Podsauce“; and more.
DATES
MTV is launching a podcast version of “Behind the Music,” the ’90s-era music documentary series that originally aired on VH1, with a selection of the best episodes — updated and remastered for audio. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube will be the first two artists featured, with both premiere episodes dropping on Thursday, July 29. Upcoming episodes will feature 50 Cent, AC/DC, Adam Lambert, Bret Michaels, Courtney Love, DJ Khaled, Duran Duran, Fat Joe, Guns N’ Roses, Madonna, New Kids on the Block, Toni Braxton and Usher. New podcast episodes drop weekly and are available via the iHeartRadio app and on other podcast platforms. Listen to the trailer at this link. The “Behind the Music” podcast is positioned as an audio companion to Paramount Plus’ “Behind the Music” series with new and classic episodes, also premiering July 29. In addition, iHeartRadio’s MTV “Behind the Music Podcast Playlist” features songs from each of the artists profiled in Season 1 of the podcast.
Audacy announced the launch of “Podsauce,” a new weekly podcast discovery show that will cover the world of podcasting to help consumers find new series to listen to. “Podsauce” will air in both audio and video formats beginning July 29. The one-hour show is hosted by Dax Holt, host of the “Hollywood Raw” podcast and former “TMZ” correspondent, and actor-TV personality Alesha Reneé. The duo promise to go beyond recommendations to interview podcast creators and producers behind the podcasts. Guests will include including Kenny Mayne, former ESPN host; Shayna Ferm and Tracey Tee, hosts of “The Band of Mothers Podcast”; Max Linsky, creator and host of “70 Over 70”; Nina Gilden Seavey, host of “My Fugitive”; Courtney Armstrong, Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane, hosts of “The Piketon Massacre”; and Trey Wingo, former ESPN host and current host of “Trey Wingo Presents: Half-Forgotten History.” The show will be available via podsauce, as well as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook; audio episodes can be found on the Audacy app and other podcast platforms. Select soundbites of the show, the “Podsauce Minute,” also will be aired across Audacy’s portfolio of 235 broadcast stations. Watch the trailer at this link.
Spotify and Gimlet‘s latest scripted original, “The Final Chapters of Richard Brown Winters,” premieres Monday (July 26). The show’s cast includes Catherine Keener, Bobby Cannavale, Parker Posey, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and Sam Waterston. The 90-minute, feature-length podcast is written by Eli Horowitz (“Homecoming”) and Kevin Moffett (“Sandra”). The story follows Richard Brown Winters, one of the world’s bestselling authors, who’s gone dark for almost a decade. One ardent fan joins a ragtag group journeying to Winters’ desert cabin and uncovers a truth that “threatens to destroy everything he knows about his favorite author — and the world Winters has built — forever.” Listen to the trailer at this link.
SiriusXM’s Stitcher partnered with the Freakonomics Radio Network for “This Won’t Hurt a Bit,” taking looking at the hidden side of healthcare, which premieres Aug. 5. Hosted by Dr. Bapu Jena, a PhD economist and Harvard MD, the podcast is produced by Tricia Bobeda and engineered by Adam Yoffe. Listen to the trailer at this link.
The American Kennel Club debuted Season 2 of “Down and Back: Stories From the American Kennel Club Archives” on July 23, with returning host AKC historian Bud Buccone. It’s available at akc.org/podcast and on all major podcast platforms.
DEALS
iHeartMedia inked a multiyear exclusive agreement with Sports Illustrated to coproduce eight original podcasts with Sports Illustrated Studios, formed as a joint venture last year between101 Studios and Authentic Brands Group (ABG), owner of the Sports Illustrated brand. The iHeartPodcast Network will distribute all of the original titles as well as SI’s existing podcasts across iHeartRadio and other podcast networks. Set to debut later this year is “Sports Illustrated Weekly,” featuring deep-dive segments on the biggest news and personalities of the week in 45-minute episodes. Coming in 2022 is SI Studios’ “Lateral Damage,” a spin on the true-crime genre about UC Berkeley college football player Mariet Ford, who was an instrumental part of the team’s legendary “The Play” in a 1982 game against Stanford — and was later convicted of murdering his young son and pregnant wife.
GREENLIGHTS
Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios announced a series from award-winning reporters Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, co-hosts of the podcast “Trump, Inc.” for an investigative documentary podcast series that will trace the failures that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The yet-to-be-titled series from the former longtime WNYC staffers is slated to launch in early 2022. Bernstein and Marritz have written for the New Yorker, New York magazine and the New York Daily News and are contributors to NPR on Trump legal fallout.
REPORTS
Research firm MIDiA released “Podcast Audiences – Competing for Attention,” a report examining the latest market trends and the impact podcast growth is having on music streaming and radio. Among the findings: Spotify remains the platform consumers are most likely to go to for podcasts, used by 43% of podcast users, followed by Apple Podcasts, preferred by 26% of listeners (as of Q4 2020). Podcast audiences are still relatively weakly engaged, with just 44% of podcast monthly active users listening daily, compared with 72% for music streaming and 67% for radio.
