ViacomCBS unveiled its fall podcasting slate, continuing its strategy centered around extending popular franchises into audio programming.
The media company, which claims downloads of its podcasts have nearly doubled year-over-year across the portfolio, is set to debut all-new podcasts from CBS, CBS News, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. The lineup includes a podcast version of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “Tha God’s Honest Truth” from Lenard “Charlamagne Tha God” McKelvey, a retrospective of the “SpongeBob SquarePants” by two superfans, and “Unsung Science with David Pogue.”
Here’s a rundown of the new shows:
CBS: “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Sept. 13 premiere): A daily podcast adaptation of Barrymore’s syndicated daytime talk show, produced and distributed by CBS, which features human-interest stories, “happy news,” lifestyle segments and celebrity guests. On the show, the thespian shares her “undeniably relatable point of view while celebrating every part of humanity along the way,” according to CBS.
Comedy Central: “Tha God’s Honest Truth”(Sept. 20 premiere): The well-known radio personality hosts an audio adaptation of his upcoming weekly late-night show on the cabler. Each episode features a variety of deep dives, sketches and social experiments that “cuts through the bullshit so you don’t step in it,” per Comedy Central. “Rooted in truth, coated in comedy and unapologetically Black, nothing is off limits.” The podcast, co-produced by Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia’s The Black Effect Podcast Network venture, will be available on Mondays.
Nickelodeon: “SpongeBob BingePants”: (Oct. 7 premiere): Take a deep dive down to Bikini Bottom with this weekly podcast. Hosts Frankie Grande (“Henry Danger”) and Hector Navarro (host of the “Nickelodeon Animation Podcast”) both love “SpongeBob SquarePants.” So they decided to rewatch the entire series — starting all the way back to the iconic first episode. Each week, the duo will talk about their binge-watching experience and interview special guests including voice actors and veteran artists to dig up behind-the-scenes secrets about everyone’s favorite sea sponge. “SpongeBob BingePants” is distributed by the iHeartPodcast Network.
CBS News: “Unsung Science with David Pogue” (Oct. 15 premiere): The tech maven and “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent takes listeners behind the scenes into the worlds of the people who’ve built the best in transportation, entertainment, food, internet and health to uncover “untold stories of mind-blowing achievements in science and tech.” The podcast is produced in partnership with Simon & Schuster and PRX.
