4 hours ago
2
ABC News is going after true-crime superfans with the launch of the “20/20 True Crime+” subscription tier on Apple Podcasts.
The new podcast subscription, available as of Tuesday (July 28), provides ad-free access to all “20/20” content from new and archival episodes and narrative series, as well as early access to new releases and exclusive content like subscriber Q&As with “20/20” co-anchor and “20/20: The After Show” host Deborah Roberts. “20/20 True Crime+” is available for free seven-day trial on Apple Podcasts, after which they cost $2.99/month or $29.99/year.
Timed to the launch of the subscription tier, “20/20” and the ABC News Podcast Network are introducing two new series: “What Happened to the McStays?” and “Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione.” Subscribers to “20/20 True Crime+” on Apple Podcasts will gain early access to the first three episodes of “What Happened to the McStays?” and the first episode of “Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione.”
“Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione” is hosted by ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmire, who previously hosted the award-winning podcast “Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy.” “20/20 True Crime+” subscribers will have exclusive access to the first episode of “Burden of Proof” on Aug. 7 on Apple Podcasts, with the series premiere on Aug. 10 for non-subscribers, with episodes dropping weekly.
The five-part series chronicles the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the search for and eventual arrest of his alleged assassin, Luigi Mangione. The series will delve into Mangione’s background, “tracing his path from a privileged Baltimore upbringing to the center of one of America’s most shocking crimes, for which he has entered a not guilty plea,” according to ABC News’ description. The podcast “examines what may have driven him to murder as this case became a lightning rod in the larger debate around healthcare in the United States.” The series is hosted by ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmire, who previously hosted award-winning podcast “Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy.”
“What Happened to the McStays?”, hosted by ABC News correspondent Ashan Singh, will premiere July 28 for “20/20 True Crime+” subscribers and Aug. 11 for non-subscribers. The series covers the case of the McStay family, which on Feb. 4, 2010, seemingly vanished into thin air from their home in Southern California. Per the show’s description, the McStays’ mysterious disappearance ignited an investigation that led officials to conclude that the family had left for Mexico — a theory that unraveled years later in the Mojave Desert and eventually led investigators to a suspect that no one expected.
Katie den Daas, SVP of global newsgathering at ABC News, said the new subscription tier on Apple Podcasts for “20/20” shows is aimed at super-serving fans of the genre. “We think what sets us apart is that we are still using our fact-based, true-crime journalism to tell these stories,” she said.
The “20/20 True Crime+” subscription is launching first on Apple Podcasts because “Apple is just ubiquitous,” den Daas said. “We want to make it as easy as possible to access our content.”
Janice Johnston, executive producer of “20/20,” said the podcast subscription offering provides an outlet for the program to give audiences additional exclusive content from cases that have been featured on TV, like the McStay family murders, in addition to podcast-only episodes.
“We shoot so much — we do so many interviews, and there are so many gems we leave behind that we are unable to include,” Johnston said. For its extended podcast series on cases of particular interest, “we take what we were unable to share on broadcast and have time to play that extra interview… There are stories where you have a fantastic interview — where someone is really just telling their story and what might have been the toughest day of their life.”
English (US) ·