Writer, actor, presenter, and comedian Ade Edmondson has been announced as the new host of Sony Music Entertainment’s popular Out To Lunch which will be returning for a new season this October.
Following a hiatus period for the podcast which lasted for nearly 10 months, Edmondson will be reviving the show and replacing previous host, journalist and food critic Jay Rayner. The podcast format follows the host taking guests out to lunch to have a conversation in a fancy restaurant.
Edmondson’s background in food includes winning Celebrity MasterChef and earning the title of ‘star baker’ at The Great Sports Relief Bake Off. Guests this season include musician Chrissie Hynde, comedian and actress Bridget Christie, actor and writer Reece Shearsmith, record producer Tony Visconti, actress and writer Daisy Haggard, and actor and comedian Ed Byrne.
“I’ve got one rule: I have to really like them. I can’t do the pretend-liking thing. It has to be a love-in,” Edmondson told The Guardian in an interview, talking about how he picks his podcast guests. “I love Bridget Christie and we got into a conversation about Bottom and I was shocked because she was so complimentary.”
In addition to the podcast’s main feed, there is also an additional subscription offering on Apple Podcasts titled The Digestivo which features bonus episodes where the special guests talk about five of their favourite restaurants from the world and what they ate there as well as extended cuts of the interviews and ad-free listening.
Sony Music Entertainment recently announced a round of layoffs and a spokesperson from the company told Bloomberg that a “significant percentage of the [podcasting] division” has been affected, but declined to comment further about specifications. A spokesperson later told PodPod that the changes also included people from the creative team.
In addition to the layoffs, there have been reports from Bloomberg that Sony Music is quietly shutting down its hit podcast High Low with EmRata but the decision to end the show has not yet been made public by Sony Music and a spokesperson from the company told PodPod that they have no comment on the podcast.
