The deep cuts at Amazon’s Wondery podcast studio rattled the audio industry last week, and raised questions about the company’s future podcast projects. One of those projects could be a podcast that Ronan Farrow had pitched to co-host with his mother, actor Mia Farrow, Semafor is told. Amazon’s Audible announced earlier this year that it had signed a multi-project deal with Farrow, which Semafor is told was in the seven-figure range.
The younger Farrow’s career has shifted in recent years. While his investigative work for The New Yorker helped define the #MeToo era and the first Trump administration, like many journalists he has gravitated towards audio. Earlier this year, Farrow released Not A Very Good Murderer, a true crime podcast series investigating a series of cold cases in a wealthy community. He also hosted the Catch and Kill podcast, an adaptation of his book of the same name.
Farrow declined to comment. One person familiar with the situation told Semafor that Audible’s future projects with Farrow are still in flux, but the company was pleased with the performance of Not A Very Good Murderer.
Amazon announced last week that it was restructuring its podcast and audio divisions, laying off over a hundred staffers at Wondery (and parting ways with its CEO), while funneling many of its podcasts to Audible and Amazon’s creator division. Still, despite the cuts, family-themed podcasts have proven to be a fruitful area for the company: Amazon’s most successful podcast is hosted by two siblings: NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce.