It's been more than a year since the second season of groundbreaking true-crime podcast Serial debuted, and as yet there's been no word on a third. But now, the creative team behind Serial, including Ira Glass and Sarah Koenig, has a new podcast in the works, which will follow another real-life murder mystery in rural Alabama.
S-Town will be hosted by longtime This American Life producer Brian Reed, and has been in development since before Serial launched, according to a news release. The show was created when a man from small-town Alabama reached out to the This American Life team, asking them to investigate the son of a wealthy local family who had been "bragging that he got away with murder". Shortly after Reed agreed to investigate, the synopsis for the show teases, "someone else ended up dead, and another story began to unfold–about a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure and the mysteries of one man's life."
The podcast will be the first to launch under the team's new production banner, Serial Productions, with two more new podcasts also in development. The best news of all? All the episodes of S-Town will be released simultaneously, Netflix-style, in March for your binge-listening pleasure.
Also notable for podcast nerds is the presence of Mystery Show's Starlee Kine, who will co-produce alongside Glass and Koenig. Kine was let go from Gimlet Media last fall, much to the consternation of Mystery Show's many devoted fans.
"We're harnessing the incredible reporting and editing talent of This American Life and Serial and throwing it toward the creation of new shows," Julie Snyder, who co-created Serial with Koenig and is an executive producer on S-Town, said in a news release. "Brian and I began working on the S-Town story three years ago, before we'd even launched Serial, and immediately I knew it was special. I remember thinking, 'If this thing with Serial works – telling one big story over several chapters – then I definitely want to try it with Brian's story next.'"
"This story takes so many unexpected turns," added Glass. "Every episode is a new surprise. And the story has this feeling and mood that's different from anything else we've done. I don't think people have heard a show like this."
