Content creation company Tenderfoot TV will be expanding its podcast portfolio with a slate of new series releasing throughout the remainder of 2023, the company has announced.
The upcoming slate is led by the launch of Dear Alana, an eight-part limited series on the life and death of Alana Chen who went to conversion therapy due to her aspirations of being a nun and later died of suicide at the age of 24. The series, launching in August this year, is hosted by Simon Kent Fung who shares a similar past to Chen and confronts his own history with conversion therapy within the podcast while uncovering Chen’s life.
“Telling powerful and profound stories will always be at the centre of what we create, and this slate embodies the repertoire of content that focus on new innovative ways to tell these stories from narrative storytelling to talk format,” said Tenderfoot TV CEO and co-founder Donald Albright. “We’re excited to continue to diversify the content we’re covering, like the story of Alana Chen in Dear Alana, and give a voice and platform to the marginalised and forgotten.”
For the first time, Tenderfoot TV founder Payne Lindsey - best known for long-form investigative documentary series - will also be hosting a new weekly true crime talk show. The series titled Talking to Death is launching in October, in partnership with iHeartMedia, and will see Lindsey in conversation with a number of different guests talking about death.
As part of the new slate, TenderfootTV also plans to expand its brand franchises by launching a number of spinoffs and mini-series including a spin off of its hit fictional podcast Radio Rental, titled Rattled & Shook. The spinoff, produced in partnership with Audacy, launched yesterday and is co-hosted by award-winning producer Meredith Stedman and horror buff Aprile Ruha, and features spooky stories and games as well as special guests. The sixth instalment of Radio Rental will also be returning with 12 new episodes in October.
“Building on the success of our franchise series through spinoffs is going to allow us to connect to our listeners even more granularly,” said Tenderfoot TV co-founder Payne Lindsey. “Listeners can expect a lot of firsts with this year’s slate, including my first-ever talk show Talking to Death, which is a fresh new approach to covering true crime topics and discussions.”
Up and Vanished, the long-running investigative documentary podcast hosted by Lindsey, is returning for its fourth season as well in November 2023, covering a mysterious disappearance in Alaska. As part of the slate, the company is releasing a mini five-part series in September titled The Vanishing Point, hosted by Truer Crime’s Celisia Stanton and focusing on a series of unsolved cases connected by a single location. A spin-off titled Up and Vanished Weekly will also be launching in September, also produced in partnership with Audacy, looking at past cold cases with fresh perspectives and giving audiences the opportunity to impact new cases before they turn cold.
Another Tenderfoot TV podcast classic to receive a mini-series within the upcoming slate is To Live and Die in LA. The miniseries is launching later this year in December and will explore recent and cold cases around LA and will see the return of award-winning journalist and author Neil Strauss as the host. Investigative true-crime podcast Culpable will also be returning for a mini season in August titled Case Review, and features host Dennis Cooper presenting six new cases over the course of six weeks.
More podcasts within the true-crime investigative podcast genre that will be part of the upcoming slate include The Estate, a co-production with Sonoro in partnership with Audacy, hosted by Alex Estrada who tries to solve a family mystery which led to the murder of one of his father’s business partners. In November, Down Range - an eight-part podcast series which tells the stories of the American Special Forces - will be premiering to coincide with Veteran’s Day, hosted by retired navy SEAL and actor Remi Adeleke and retired army lieutenant colonel Rich Chopp.
The new slate of podcasts is part of the company’s push to “double down” on its subscription-based strategy, and will be available as ad-free box-sets for subscribers of Tenderfoot+. Subscribers will also gain early access to exclusive bonus episodes of the podcast.
