‘Serial’ Creators Ready New True Crime Podcast Set in Alabama
The producers of Serial will launch a new podcast this spring titled S-Town, a non-fiction limited series about rural Alabama. Longtime This American Life producer Brian Reed will host the series, produced by Ira Glass and Serial co-creators Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder. S-Town will be released simultaneously in March via Serial Productions.
S-Town arrives years after an Alabama man contacted This American Life to ask that the show investigate the son of wealthy man who allegedly boasted about getting away with murder. What followed was a second death, which led the investigation to “a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure and the mysteries of one man’s life.”
“This story takes so many unexpected turns,” Glass said in a statement. “Every episode is a new surprise. And the story has this feeling and mood that’s different from anything else we’ve done. I don’t think people have heard a show like this.”
S-Town is one of three series that Serial Productions is launching. “We’re harnessing the incredible reporting and editing talent of This American Life and Serial and throwing it toward the creation of new shows,” Snyder said in a statement. “Brian and I began working on the S-Town story three years ago, before we’d even launched Serial, and immediately I knew it was special.”
S-Town comes nearly a year after the second season of Serial. The popular podcast series focused on the trial of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by the Taliban for five years after deserting from his military base in Afghanistan. Plans for the third season of Serial have not yet been revealed, although Koenig was spotted at a Cleveland trial in November.