Laura Escanes and Risto Mejide announced their sentimental split in September 2022, just days after launching the final episode of their collaborative podcast Cariño, but what do you think of that? In it, they focused precisely on talking about love and specifically their relationship as a couple. It didn’t take long for the media, which was repeating this break, to find clues in these footage as to what had happened between the two just before their breakup. Consumption of audio entertainment is growing in Spain, reaching 73% of Spaniards according to a study by Audible, a platform owned by Amazon, at the end of 2022. And such growth in consumption means that the world of podcasts is increasingly addressing more aspects of society.
Idoia Cantolla, Content Director at Podimo, whose catalog includes the sonic encounter between Escanes and Mejide, explains that couple content is a subgenre that already works in audio productions abroad, “whether with family, sentimental partners or friends,” account by phone. His proposal shouldn’t end up in gossip, but symbiosis is inevitable. “We appreciate they haven’t done anything together other than public appearances, so we suggested they create something as a duo and talk about their way of looking at life and their shared values. It’s a way to reach an audience that hasn’t consumed audio before,” he points out. His choice of titles often uses personal names from all walks of life, from Felipe González to actresses Ana Milán or Silvia Abril.
For David Andújar, one of the creators of the Podium video podcast Menudo cuadro, about Cariño, but what do you say? “That would be something like realisation [adaptar los preceptos del género de la telerrealidad] of the podcast,” he comments on the phone.
Menudo cuadro was a pioneer when it came to transferring topics that are typical for the social chronicle to the audio offer without complexes. David Insua, the other half of the project, points out that “the content that emerges during an interview on a conversational podcast gets swallowed up by the tabloids. There’s more and more news as to what a familiar face in one of them is saying. In their case, they went from chatting in their first installments with one of Sálvame’s most famous collaborators, Lydia Lozano, to the veteran Telecinco show, filling hours of content and commenting on the interventions of some of their guests.
David Andújar (left) and David Insua, creators of “Menudo cuadro”, at the Cadena Ser Studios on Gran Vía in Madrid.Podium Podcast
The project and the presence of its two creators in digital media has expanded over the four seasons of Menudo Cuadro. Now they are promoting other hot topics like humor on social media and pop culture. They no longer record one of them in the living room of the house, but sit in a studio belonging to the Ser on Gran Vía, their current workplace, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero.
From Corinna Larsen to the faces of Telecinco
“Very few still come from the heart, but it is true that the format gives more space to the protagonists of this type of content. Like when Risto and Laura Escanes get a space to say whatever they want. In these cases, the content is overpriced. They know what they are going to say and speak as far as they want to speak,” defends Andújar.
A similar thing happens in a title that has also occupied a large place in all the press, including the title dedicated to the social chronicle, Corinna and the King. Project Brazen’s audio investigative work, co-founded by Pulitzer Prize finalists and best-selling authors Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, focuses on the character of Corinna zu-Sayn Wittengenstein (Corinna Larsen, in her maiden name) and his relationship with Juan Carlos I This December he launched his eighth and final installment.
As the protagonist herself reveals her relationship with the Emeritus King and her experience of some key events in Spain’s recent history each week in first-person perspective, the media exposure of this La cotelera Music production has increased. In her deliveries, listeners could hear regarding Juan Carlos I: “He came back with sacks of money”, “In my heart he was my husband”, “Someone who becomes a stalker who tries to lock you up when he is yours wants to destroy family.” These are some of the statements made by Larsen in front of the microphone and which have made headlines in all sorts of international media. The arrival of this podcast, available on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, but by Coinciding with the legal battle, Royal Hunt, a mysterious fashion website not normally dedicated to this sound medium, has launched a lawsuit against the King Emeritus in UK courts.
Nagore Robles (left) and Alba Carrillo (centre) interview another Mediaset face, Alejandra Rubio, granddaughter of María Teresa Campos, in We Screwed Up. MTMAD
Mediaset is an expert, or at least was during Paolo Vasile’s long and recently ended era, when it comes to providing heartfelt feedback on its content related to its own universe of characters. In 2022, she expanded her reach by launching a podcast featuring two of her most iconic faces. Nagore Robles and Alba Carrillo, former participants in their reality shows who became collaborators, presenters and protagonists of the news that appeared on their sets, stand in front of the microphones of Nos hamos Liado. They do this on Mtmad, the platform that connects the communication group with the digital environment and a younger audience. The format, which includes video, follows one of the medium’s most well-known genres: conversational. Its official premise clearly defines a listener’s profile: two newly singles in their thirties reflect on their love lives and take sentimental advice from other celebrities. They have already shot 13 episodes and in the most recent episodes, stars from the digital world such as Mara Jiménez, Esty Quesada, Dulceida, Kikillo and Ger have been present to talk about topics that usually creep into the digital conversation such as fat phobia, School of bullying or the business of influencers. But the two hostesses receive a guest who is often part of the Mediaset world. They continue to talk to them about the same content and controversies that fill the rundowns of their TV magazines: their famous couples, their family, aesthetic surgeries and anything that can echo beyond the sound.
“Familiar faces appreciate that it’s a format where they can say what they really want to say, even if other media uses excerpts from it later to shoot it. They feel that there is not that much pressure and journalists may not get this information in other contexts,” comments Podimo’s Cantolla. Menudo cuadro’s David Andújar agrees with this idea. “The conversational podcast is a very relaxed format. A guest can come and speak slowly for an hour and a half. It is not common in heart formats. So more nuances can come out of these interviews than those later fed by other media.” Some guests, Insua comments, confess to them that “there’s no more time on TV to talk, listen, move on…”. “And because we’re part of a new medium, we don’t have the corsets of magazines that have been covering these issues for decades,” Andújar emphasizes.
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