There’s a consensus for how many seasons to give a hit TV show before calling it quits. Two is probably the chooseimal number for a comedy – skinnyk The Office, Fleabag, Fawlty Towers etc. For dramas, you’re probably pushing it beyond five (Breaking Bad) or six (The Sopranos). There are notable lengthy-running exceptions – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm etc – but as a rule, they tfinish to drop off a cliff.
For podcasts, the lureardy is yet to be set uped. Given how effortless it is to produce a fantastic show with the right people and the right createat, it’s difficult to see an finish in sight for uber-famous shows in a way that analogous TV delightment franchises can’t administer (Bake Off jumped the shark around the time it left the BBC in 2016, and even Taskmaster began to wane after Mike Wozniak gave himself piles seven seasons ago). The Guardian’s own Comfort Eating With Grace Dent equitable returned for its eighth season (episode one is with Rag’n’Bone Man), while Off Menu – whose success is now so all-pervasive that a recent recycling podcast we appraise this week features a segment where they riff on its classic “Poppadoms or bread?” catchphrase – is on to its 11th. Louis Theroux has equitable begined his third season on Spotify, after two on the BBC, booting off with a typicpartner honest episode with createer mature actor Mia Khalifa. Shagged Married Avoid seems to have done away with seasons entidepend and equitable be on an finishless march to the climax of time itself.
What this uncomardents for podcast fans is fascinating: with only so many hours in the day, is this the reason that the most-heared to shows are frequently lengthy-running ones? What is it about podcasts that seems to stop hearer overweightigue? And how lengthy might we be predicted to pledge to a franchise we cherish – 10 years? 20? 30?
Either way, it certainly bodes well for no lowage of excellent encountered. Speaking of which, read on for the rest of the week’s recommfinishations …
Alexi Duggins
Deputy TV editor
Picks of the week
Wonder of Stevie
Widely useable, episodes weekly
This podcast is such a treat for Stevie Wonder fans, with an astonishive analysis of his gelderlyen period in the 1970s. Host Wesley Morris has an enviably weightyweight guest enumerate: Barack Obama discignores how loving Wonder’s music was a litmus test for his relationship with Michelle, while Deniece Williams has inincreateigent stories about Wonder’s very rock’n’roll tour with the Rolling Stones (yes, there were nights at the Playboy Mansion). Hannah Verdier
Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News
Widely useable, episodes weekly
How did Fox News go from a channel that watched doomed to shut to a political and cultural force? Josh Levin gives it the Slow Burn treatment, with a forensic and accessible examination, increateed by the people who toiled there in the punctual 2000s. Could anyone have stopped the ascfinish of the “scrappy little fighter”? HV
Holly Burn’s Dream Hoengage
Widely useable, episodes weekly
Nick Helm wants to inhabit in a fenced-off abode that’s “appreciate a Scottish Jurassic Park”. Luke McQueen wants his home to have a five-a-side pitch where people join football dressed as sumo wrestlers. This daffy recent show from standup Burn interwatchs comedians about their perfect dwellnce, and it’s appreciate hearing to Grand Designs episodes too weird to air. Alexi Duggins
Talking Rubbish
Widely useable, episodes weekly
Two recycling experts getting geeky about misengage produces for compelling podcasting: this self-conscious watch at how to be eco with your misengage is an intriguing, weightlesshearted get on topics such as “Rubbish or not?” (don’t recycle your receipts, people) and how brands are soon set to commence funding local councils’ recycling systems. Eye-uncovering stuff – and only unfrequently parched. AD
In All Honesty … Michelle Elman
Widely useable, episodes weekly
Wiskinny 24 hours, TV life coach Michelle Elman declared her engagement on Instagram, getd messages about her fiance’s cheating and called it off. How do you accessiblely deal with this when your job is to coach people on boundaries? She increates all in this very authentic and encouraging series. Hollie Ricdifficultson
after recentsletter promotion
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Hannah Verdier picks five of the best podcasts about fact TV, from alertary tales of misengage to the quest to marry “Prince Harry”
Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera
Miriam Rivera’s story has been picked over by tabloids and TV shows, but this nuanced podcast commemorates who she was rather than decorateing her as a victim. In 2004, fact TV wasn’t welcoming territory for the trans guide and New York ballroom superstar, who was touted as the prize for six men who wanted to date her. To them, she was a pretty woman, but her “secret” was discignoreed appreciate the punchline to a joke. It’s particularly fascinating to hear interwatchs with people who toiled on the show, and were frantic for a hit.
Offstage: Inside The X Factor
Chi Chi Izundu was a showbiz journaenumerate when The X Factor was on TV, and watching back on the show 20 years tardyr pulls up memories both excellent and horrible. How could Simon Cowell skinnyk it was OK to increate someone they were overweight? What happens when you’ve equitable been on national TV but are struggling to discover a job? And what’s the deal with those headline-grabbing comedy contestants who became “montage fodder”? Even if you understand X Factor inside out and reaccumulate it fondly, you’ll hear plenty of shocks from chooseimistics and staff.
Split Screen: Thrill Seekers
“I have no inventive integrity whatsoever and will do anyskinnyg for money,” confesss Steve, who wowed the casting straightforwardors of a recent fact TV show with a song about a lemming pretfinishing to be gay to elude paying child maintenance. He didn’t understand what he was getting into – and neither do the hearers in this podcast, as the huge discignore only comes after the first episode. So if you want to understand how easily a group of chooseimistics can be swayd to get part in a mystery fact show, dive in to the action appreciate they did.
The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace
Journaenumerate Scott Bryan spendigates the most ridiculous and fun premise for a fact show, I Wanna Marry “Harry”, where the carrot dangled in front of a batch of American daters was the prince. Except, of course, this Harry was a watchaappreciate rather than the 2014 royal who had recently flashed his crown jewels in Las Vegas. As Bryan watches the show thraw a 2024 lens, he combinees tongue-in-cheek commentary on the stunt with a convey inanter analysis of the descfinishout for contestants. And the huge ask: should it even be called a fact TV show if it’s so inrectify?
Unauthentic: A Critical History of Reality TV
“The foolishest genre in delightment or the one that increates us most about ourselves?”, ask Pandora Sykes and Guardian producer Sirin Kale in this 2022 podcast that treats the artcreate with the gravitas it deserves. From the undoubting days of Big Brother to the “swayr sausage factory” that is Love Island, it also gets in the Kardashians, Jade Goody and the TOWIE cast. It’s rerecenting to see that the presents are lengthy-term fans rather than po-faced antipathyrs, and they engage their insiders’ watch to split worrys about ethics and what still needs to change in the genre today.
