How Fox News went from ailing network to rightwing behemoth

Slow Burn returns for a new season, examining the phoenix-like rise of the American media giant. Plus: five of the best reality TV podcasts

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There’s a consensus for how many seasons to give a hit TV show before calling it quits. Two is probably the optimal number for a comedy – think The Office (the UK one), Fleabag, Fawlty Towers etc. For dramas, you’re probably pushing it beyond five (Breaking Bad) or six (The Sopranos). There are notable long-running exceptions – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm etc – but as a rule, they tend to drop off a cliff.

For podcasts, the template is yet to be established. Given how easy it is to make a great show with the right people and the right format, it’s hard to see an end in sight for uber-popular shows in a way that similar TV entertainment franchises can’t manage (Bake Off jumped the shark around the time it left the BBC in 2016, and even Taskmaster began to wane after Mike Wozniak gave himself piles seven seasons ago). The Guardian’s own Comfort Eating With Grace Dent just returned for its eighth season (episode one is with Rag’n’Bone Man), while Off Menu – whose success is now so all-pervasive that a new recycling podcast we review this week features a segment where they riff on its classic “Poppadoms or bread?” catchphrase – is on to its 11th. Louis Theroux has just launched his third season on Spotify, after two on the BBC, kicking off with a typically candid episode with former adult actor Mia Khalifa. Shagged Married Avoid seems to have done away with seasons entirely and just be on an endless march to the climax of time itself.

What this means for podcast fans is interesting: with only so many hours in the day, is this the reason that the most-listened to shows are often long-running ones? What is it about podcasts that seems to prevent listener fatigue? And how long might we be expected to commit to a franchise we love – 10 years? 20? 30?

Either way, it certainly bodes well for no shortage of excellent content. Speaking of which, read on for the rest of the week’s recommendations …
Alexi Duggins
Deputy TV editor

Picks of the week

Wonder of Stevie
Widely available, episodes weekly
This podcast is such a treat for Stevie Wonder fans, with an impressive analysis of his golden period in the 1970s. Host Wesley Morris has an enviably heavyweight guest list: Barack Obama reveals how loving Wonder’s music was a litmus test for his relationship with Michelle, while Deniece Williams has brilliant stories about Wonder’s very rock’n’roll tour with the Rolling Stones (yes, there were nights at the Playboy Mansion). Hannah Verdier

Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News
Widely available, episodes weekly
How did Fox News go from a channel that looked doomed to close to a political and cultural force? Josh Levin gives it the Slow Burn treatment, with a forensic and accessible examination, informed by the people who worked there in the early 2000s. Could anyone have stopped the rise of the “scrappy little fighter”? HV

Holly Burn’s Dream House
Widely available, episodes weekly
Nick Helm wants to live in a fenced-off abode that’s “like a Scottish Jurassic Park”. Luke McQueen wants his home to have a five-a-side pitch where people play football dressed as sumo wrestlers. This daffy new show from standup Burn interviews comedians about their ideal residence, and it’s like listening to Grand Designs episodes too weird to air. Alexi Duggins

Talking Rubbish
Widely available, episodes weekly
Two recycling experts getting geeky about waste makes for compelling podcasting: this self-aware look at how to be eco with your waste is an intriguing, lighthearted take on topics such as “Rubbish or not?” (don’t recycle your receipts, people) and how brands are soon set to start funding local councils’ recycling systems. Eye-opening stuff – and only rarely dry. AD

In All Honesty … Michelle Elman
Widely available, episodes weekly
Within 24 hours, TV life coach Michelle Elman announced her engagement on Instagram, received messages about her fiance’s infidelity and called it off. How do you publicly deal with this when your job is to coach people on boundaries? She tells all in this very honest and helpful series. Hollie Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

This week, Hannah Verdier picks five of the best podcasts about reality TV, from cautionary tales of exploitation to the quest to marry “Prince Harry”
Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera
Miriam Rivera’s story has been picked over by tabloids and TV shows, but this nuanced podcast celebrates who she was rather than painting her as a victim. In 2004, reality TV wasn’t welcoming territory for the trans pioneer and New York ballroom superstar, who was touted as the prize for six men who wanted to date her. To them, she was a beautiful woman, but her “secret” was revealed like the punchline to a joke. It’s particularly interesting to hear interviews with people who worked on the show, and were desperate for a hit.
Offstage: Inside The X Factor
Chi Chi Izundu was a showbiz journalist when The X Factor was on TV, and looking back on the show 20 years later pulls up memories both good and bad. How could Simon Cowell think it was OK to tell someone they were overweight? What happens when you’ve just been on national TV but are struggling to find a job? And what’s the deal with those headline-grabbing comedy contestants who became “montage fodder”? Even if you know X Factor inside out and remember it fondly, you’ll hear plenty of shocks from hopefuls and staff.

Split Screen: Thrill Seekers
“I have no artistic integrity whatsoever and will do anything for money,” admits Steve, who wowed the casting directors of a new reality TV show with a song about a lemming pretending to be gay to avoid paying child maintenance. He didn’t know what he was getting into – and neither do the listeners in this podcast, as the big reveal only comes after the first episode. So if you want to know how easily a group of hopefuls can be convinced to take part in a mystery reality show, dive in to the action like they did.

The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace
Journalist Scott Bryan investigates the most ridiculous and fun premise for a reality show, I Wanna Marry “Harry”, where the carrot dangled in front of a batch of American daters was the prince. Except, of course, this Harry was a lookalike rather than the 2014 royal who had recently flashed his crown jewels in Las Vegas. As Bryan watches the show through a 2024 lens, he mixes tongue-in-cheek commentary on the stunt with a deeper analysis of the fallout for contestants. And the big question: should it even be called a reality TV show if it’s so fake?

Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV
“The dumbest genre in entertainment or the one that tells us most about ourselves?”, ask Pandora Sykes and Guardian writer Sirin Kale in this 2022 podcast that treats the artform with the gravitas it deserves. From the naive days of Big Brother to the “influencer sausage factory” that is Love Island, it also takes in the Kardashians, Jade Goody and the TOWIE cast. It’s refreshing to see that the hosts are long-term fans rather than po-faced haters, and they use their insiders’ view to share concerns about ethics and what still needs to change in the genre today.

Why not try …

The NYT’s classic Modern Love is back to weekly eps, beginning with a tale voiced by Gillian Anderson.

Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and broadcaster Chris Stark rope guests including Jill Scott in for a Proper Tasty Pub Quiz.

Kim Cattrall leads Limelight, Intelligence Central, an ambitious new audio drama about a pioneering CIA officer from the BBC.