Podcasts are nothing new, but the landscape of podcasting has changed a bit in recent years. More and more fictional podcast series have been finding success and Hollywood has been paying attention. If these shows can find success as a podcast, perhaps they can find success on TV? With that in mind, some podcasts are gettingadapted for TV. The latest podcast to get the TV treatment is going to be Night Vale’s hit seriesAlice Isn’t Dead, which is now in the works at USA Network.
The news comes courtesy ofEntertainment Weeklywho report thatAlice Isn’t Deadcreator Joseph Fink, who also co-authored the podcast-turned-novelWelcome to Night Vale, will executive produce the TV series forUSA Network. Considering how niche podcasts were even just a few years ago, it is pretty amazing that big cable networks are investing heavily in things likeAlice Isn’t Dead. But there is a proven audience for these shows in audio form, so there is reason to think that they can make it work for a potentially more broad audience in live-action.
Alice Isn’t Deadwas launched as a podcast in March of 2016 and since gone on to garner a very sizable audience. The story centers on a truck driver searching across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead. In the course of her search, she encounters not-quite-humanserial murderers, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.
Hollywood has been very obsessed with reboots, remakes and anything they can do to make use of recognizable, established property in recent years. Podcasts likeSerialproved that the medium can be very viable when it comes to breaking into mainstream pop culture and now studios are looking at more podcasts to try and find some established ideas that can work on TV or as a movie.Alice Isn’t Deadisn’t the only podcast TV show currently in development either. Brian Safi and Erin Gibson’s are adaptingThrowing Shadefor TV Land and Phoebe Bronson and Jessica Williams'2 Dope Queensis also being adapted into a series ofHBO specials.
There is no word yet on who else is going to be working on theAlice Isn’t DeadTV show or when USA is hoping to bring it to air. In addition to the show, publisher Harper Perennial is set to publish a novel based onAlice Isn’t Dead, which will be written by Joseph Fink as well. SoAlice Isn’t Deadis going to be a full-on multimedia franchise. If even one of these in-the-works podcast adaptations winds up working out and becoming a hit for a major network, we could be seeing a new trend emerging in Hollywood. So if you’ve ever thought about starting a fictional true crime podcast or something along those lines, now might be the time.
