Many people saw 2014 as “the year that podcasting broke,” because the medium was flung further into the mainstream spotlight more than it had ever been. And a lot of the credit for podcasting’s growing appeal is given to Serial, a show that may very well be podcasting’s first big hit.
Serial ended its first season leaving the show’s many devoted fans begging for more. And while the Serial website says the podcast will be back in 2015, it also says that the show will cover a brand new story on its next run That has left a lot of people wondering about the future of the case covered in Serial’s first season. Stepping into fill that void is a new podcast called Undisclosed: The State v. Adnan Syed.
Some are already calling this new podcast a “sequel” to Serial. But it’s not being produced by Sarah Koenig and the Serial team. From Slate:
…a new podcast will pick up Adnan’s story where Sarah Koenig left off—one created by Rabia Chaudry, the Syed family friend who first introduced Sarah Koenig to the case. She’ll co-host the podcast… with lawyers Susan Simpson and Colin Miller.
And:
Undisclosed will present a combination of new reporting, Chaudry has explained, and commentary on aspects of the case we are already familiar with.
The new podcast is set to debut on April 13th. Episodes are expected to be about 30 minutes each. It’s not yet known how long the series will run. As far as I know, this is the first time a new podcast has so directly piggybacked on the success of another. At least in the case of Undisclosed, the show is being produced by those who are very close to the source material.