Wondery, Amazon Music Unveil Upcoming Podcast Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAmazon Music and Wondery, the indie podcast studio Amazon snapped up last year, have assembled a diverse lineup of series in development for 2022 and beyond.“This slate provides a lot of shows that are building on our past successes and driving into new areas,” Marshall Lewy, chief content officer for Wondery and Amazon Music.Debuting later this month from Amazon Music is “The Lead Starting Five,” a daily sports podcast from the creators of the award-winning podcast “The Lead” that will cover the five top sports stories in a 10-minute show.

The longer-form “The Lead,” which covers one sports story in-depth in each episode, will now be released twice weekly.The shift comes as Amazon Music took full ownership of “The Lead,” winding down its partnership with The Athletic, which previously co-produced the show.

Earlier this year, the New York Times acquired The Athletic for $550 million. Set to premiere Monday, May 23, “The Lead Starting Five” will feature regular host Tiffany Oshinsky alongside a rotating cast of three guests. “We wanted to add a headline show for a long time,” Lewy said. “Short-form content is continuing to do well,” he added, noting that part of the format change is to deliver bite-size content that can be consumed on Amazon’s Echo family of smart speakers.The new Amazon Music-Wondery slate, to be detailed at their IAB Podcast Upfronts presentation Thursday, also includes:In addition, Wondery’s “Blood Ties” Season 3 starring Gillian Jacobs (“Community,” Netflix’s “Love”) will be coming to ad-supported platforms in August (after it launched on the Wondery+ subscription service on May 9).