Second annual The Next Great Podcast contest launches from iHeartRadio and Dan Patrick

Part incubator and part contest, The Next Great Podcast is beginning its second annual installation, produced by renowned sports journalist Dan Patrick with iHeartRadio. (Sponsored by Tongal, a production workflow platform.) The end product will be a newly launched podcast with all the advantages of major network backing.

The field for this scramble is as open as it gets: All creators from any nation in the world are invited to send a pitch. (They do it HERE.) Deadline for this first stage is September 17. Pitches can be as simple as a synopsis and resume’ — though audio trailers and video explainers are permitted. From that pile will eventually emerge 10 semifinalists, picked by a Patrick-led judging panel.

Each of the semifinalists will get $1,000, which funds a 10-minute pilot. Those pilots will be posted publicly (HERE is last year’s public semifinal feed), open to public voting. We are not told whether the popular vote will entirely determine the winner, or whether Patrick and his judges will put their thumbs on the scale.

However it happens, the winning show will be developed with iHeart producers into a series distributed in the iHeartPodcast Network.

Last year’s inaugural winner turned into Tossed Popcorn (on iHeart HERE), a fun and original movie review show hosted by two people who dislike movies. It just launched this month — first episode: “The Godfather: Violent and Cannoli.”

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Brad Hill