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The Podcast Academy has announced that Serial will be honored with its Governors Award, recognizing the big impact a podcast or individual has had on the industry. _Serial _co-creators Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder will accept the award at the second annual Ambie Awards on March 22.
From the creators of This American Life, _Serial _debuted in October 2014 and is hosted by Koenig and edited by Snyder. The podcast series tells one story over the course of a season. In its first season, _Serial _investigated the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County. Its subsequent seasons explored the story of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years by the Taliban, followed by a look at the cases within the Justice Center Complex in Cleveland. _Serial _has been downloaded more than 420 million times, making it the most listened-to podcast in the history of the form. _Slate _headlined “Serial is Like Nothing I’ve Ever Heard or Watched Before”; _Buzzfeed _wrote “Serial is the Best New Crime Drama (And It’s Not on TV)”; and The New Yorker declared _Serial _“the podcast we’ve been waiting for.” _Serial _won the 2014 Peabody Award, the first time the award was given to a podcast, as well as major awards for broadcasting including the duPont-Columbia, Scripps Howard, and Edward R. Murrow. _Serial _is produced by Serial Productions in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago.
“The work that Sarah, Julie, and the entire _Serial _team have accomplished over the years is groundbreaking for the podcasting industry,” said Donald Albright, Chairperson of the Podcast Academy and President & Co-Founder of Tenderfoot TV. “Serial became a successful cultural phenomenon that changed the public’s perception of podcasts and helped elevate the medium to what it is today. As a long-time admirer of Serial, like many others, I can honestly say there would be no Tenderfoot TV without them. They continue to spark curiosity and inspire podcasters new and old, which is precisely why The Podcast Academy Governors are excited to recognize them with this award.”
The Ambies will be co-hosted by Ross Mathews and Nikki Boyer (2021 Podcast of the Year Ambies-winner; Dying for Sex) and will be streamed LIVE exclusively on Twitch at 6:00p.m. PST/ 9:00p.m. EST from The Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.