ABC News is pivoting its audio podcast strategy, focusing on true crime via its newsmagazine 20/20 as it plans its 2025 programming slate.
“True crime resonates, and the audience just seems to have an appetite that knows no ends,” says Liz Alesse, vp of audio for ABC News, in an interview.
The new programs include 20/20: The After Show, which will be hosted by anchor Deborah Roberts. The show will serve as a complement to each week’s episode of the newsmagazine, taking listening behind the scenes of the stories featured.
It will also include The Crime Scene Weekly, led by Brad Mielke, which will look at the stories in the true crime space that people are talking about each week.
And ABC News will launch a rotating narrative series based on real-time news events, as well as archival material.
The first edition of that venture is called Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy, and will be hosted by Brian Buckmire; The second edition, called What Happened to Holly Bobo?, will come later this spring and feature Eva Pilgrim exploring the 2011 disappearance of Holly Bobo.
Alesse says that ABC intends to roll out narrative content on a continuous basis, blending both of-the-moment and archive-based programs. The Sean “Diddy” Combs show, for example, will offer twice-weekly updates once his trial begins.
“We see two opportunities here as a news organization,” Alesse adds. “Our narrative approach is going to be a marriage of zeitgeist, real time true crime like Diddy, but also exploring stories that have already sort of come to a natural conclusion that exists within our archive. So as a news organization, we have the opportunity to stay on the news, to be timely, relevant, resonate and be one step ahead on the stories that people are currently talking about, but we also have this rich archive where we can introduce audiences to stories that might not be as front and center to them.”
True crime has consistently been among the most popular genres of podcasts, with both original series (like Crime Junkie) and those based on true crime TV programming (i.e. 20/20 and Dateline) all benefitting from the boom.
ABC News, like its TV competition, is betting that its existing staff, archive and experience can instantly expand its footprint in the space.
“These are stories that are going to be very well told, and they are going to be told with authenticity and trust at the forefront of how we do it,” Alesse says. “That coupled with our resources, because we’re telling these stories and we’re reporting out these stories as part of our mandate as a news organization, because we have this archive, I think it just gives us a natural advantage in the space, and so we’re able to give this this audience with this voracious appetite more of what it wants in a responsible way and tell these really compelling stories and deliver on that demand.”