Disney+ and Hulu just announced their video podcast library is about to double in size over the next couple of months, and the lineup ranges from a true crime series to two comedians just hanging out.
If you’ve never clicked into the podcast tab on Disney+ before, you’re about to have a lot more reasons to.
Disney+ and Hulu introduced video podcasts a little over a year ago, starting with companion shows tied to Only Murders in the Building, Dancing with the Stars, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Murdaugh: Death in the Family. The format has clearly worked. Disney says 90% of viewers who watched the Tell Me Lies companion podcast also streamed every episode of that show’s Season 3, which is a genuinely striking number, since it suggests the podcast isn’t just bonus content bolted onto a show, it’s become part of how people actually watch it.
Two new Headgum podcasts kicked things off today, streaming exclusively on Disney+ and Hulu before they hit any other platform. Best Friends pairs comedians Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata for a weekly hangout built on a real friendship, while Perfect Person has Miles Bonsignore fielding listener dilemmas with more empathy than actual authority, which honestly sounds like the exact right energy for an advice podcast. ABC News also just debuted its first original video podcast on the platform, The Scream Murder: A True Teen Horror Story Podcast, a six-part series hosted by Pat Rogers and Conor McCarthy that digs into the killing of Idaho teenager Cassie Stoddart, built around the Hulu documentary of the same case and featuring new material that wasn’t in the original film.
More is landing fast behind those. FX’s American Horror Story Official Podcast streams Thursday, and iHeartPodcast’s Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald joins Hulu on October 1, alongside a Halloweentown episode of the Disney+ Hulu Throwbacks Podcast that feels perfectly timed for the season. A Desperately Devoted podcast rounds things out with a November 2 premiere.
Here’s the part that actually surprised me: companion podcasts, the ones tied directly to a specific show, are still the biggest draw by far. Disney’s top three most-viewed companion podcasts right now are Hulu’s Paradise, FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, and Disney+’s own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, three genuinely different shows pulling from what sounds like a pretty broad audience. The Dancing with the Stars Official Podcast is also sitting among the top performers, and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Official Podcast just became the single biggest podcast launch in Disney+ and Hulu history, based on global views in its first week alone. For a franchise that’s been running companion content for years now, having its newest entry immediately become the top performer says a lot about how much appetite there still is for behind-the-scenes Star Wars content.
It’s easy to write these off as a minor streaming feature, but the strategy here is pretty clearly working as intended: give fans a reason to keep watching after the credits roll, and they’ll stick around for the next episode too. Considering how much competition there is for attention once a show ends, a companion podcast is a low-cost way to keep a fanbase actively engaged between episodes instead of drifting off to something else entirely.
If you’ve got a Disney+ or Hulu subscription and haven’t checked the podcast tab lately, it’s worth a look, especially if you’ve been following any of the shows getting their own companion series.
We’ll keep tracking new podcast additions to Disney+ and Hulu as they roll out, so check back with Theme Park Scope for updates, and follow us on social so you don’t miss it.
Which of these new podcasts are YOU most likely to actually add to your rotation?
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