SiriusXM Launching 'BASIC!,' A New Original SXM Podcast Exploring Pop Culture During the Rise of Cable TV

New series hosted by Doug Herzog and Jen Chaney will feature an initial slate of guests including Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Schumer, Fab Five Freddy, Cindy Crawford, Tim Gunn, Neal Brennan and more

Episodes will also air weekly on SiriusXM's Volume channel beginning this Spring

NEW YORK, March 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SiriusXM announced today the upcoming launch of Basic!, an original SXM Podcast series, produced in conjunction with Pantheon Media. Hosted by media veteran Doug Herzog and TV critic Jen Chaney, Basic! explores the glory days of cable television, celebrating an era in pop culture when networks like MTV, Comedy Central, FX and ESPN changed the television landscape with groundbreaking, innovative programming.

The show will revisit cable's low-budget, quirky beginnings all the way up to the Emmy Award-winning premium dramas of the modern era. Basic! will feature interviews with the stars, key players and creative visionaries that helped make cable TV the most important utility in any American home. The podcast will also zero in on unforgettable milestone moments in basic cable history, from Live-Aid to the Monday Night Wrestling Wars, from CNN's game-changing 24-hour news coverage to the birth of reality TV.

Herzog and Chaney will anchor the conversations in this new podcast, creating an oral history as they go along. In each episode they will be joined by guests who thrived and starred on cable TV including Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Schumer, Fab Five Freddy, Cindy Crawford, Neal Brennan, Tim Gunn and many more. From the 80s to the present day, Basic! takes a closer look at the influence and impact that cable had on pop culture over the last 40 years. 

"As a career cable weasel, I'm thrilled to bring the secret history of basic cable to ears everywhere," said Doug Herzog. "It never had the same respect of network television, HBO or even the streamers who threatened to make it obsolete. But with a chip on its shoulder, it managed to change the TV landscape forever."

"With streaming options proliferating by the minute — seriously, two new platforms were launched in the time it took me to say the beginning of this sentence — it seems like a perfect time to revisit the early years of basic cable and track its evolution and impact on the TV we watch today," said Jen Chaney. "This podcast will be fun, conversational and, hopefully, educational. With Basic! in the world, hopefully no child will ever have to wonder again who Beavis or Butthead was."

Beginning May 18, the Basic! podcast will be available on Stitcher, SiriusXM's mobile app, Pandora, and all major podcast listening platforms. Episodes of Basic! will also begin airing on SiriusXM's Volume (channel 106) this spring. 

Doug Herzog is the former president of Viacom Music and Entertainment group where he oversaw MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, TVLand, Spike and Logo, among other cable channels.  Jen Chaney is a TV Critic for New York Magazine and Vulture. She is also an author and journalist who writes about movies, television and pop culture, and has written for numerous publications including The Washington Post, New York Times, Esquire and Salon.

SiriusXM is available to subscribers in their car, on their phone and connected devices at home with the SXM App. Streaming access is included for most subscribers. Go to www.siriusxm.com/ways-to-listen to learn more.

About Pantheon Media
The world's largest music & culture podcast network. With more podcast content than the New York Times podcast network or NPR Podcasts, Pantheon deepens the connection between fans and the music they love with authentic, powerful storytelling. Pantheon's podcasts dig deep into music news, history and careers with interviews and commentary that draw from records, books, films, live concerts and more. Pantheon's podcasts are hosted by legendary producers and musicians, comedians and actors, authors and radio DJs... and by ordinary fans. Just like their audience, the Pantheon family of podcasts is diverse and growing fast – over 80 shows strong with a loyal listener base that tops 500,000+ listeners every month. To learn more, please visit www.pantheonpodcasts.com.

About SiriusXM 
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is the leading audio entertainment company in North America, and the premier programmer and platform for subscription and digital advertising-supported audio products. SiriusXM's platforms collectively reach approximately 150 million listeners, the largest digital audio audience across paid and free tiers in North America, and deliver music, sports, talk, news, comedy, entertainment and podcasts. Pandora, a subsidiary of SiriusXM, is the largest ad-supported audio entertainment streaming service in the U.S. SiriusXM's subsidiaries Stitcher, Simplecast and AdsWizz make it a leader in podcast hosting, production, distribution, analytics and monetization. The Company's advertising sales arm, SXM Media, leverages its scale, cross-platform sales organization, and ad tech capabilities to deliver results for audio creators and advertisers. SiriusXM, through Sirius XM Canada Holdings, Inc., also offers satellite radio and audio entertainment in Canada. In addition to its audio entertainment businesses, SiriusXM offers connected vehicle services to automakers. For more about SiriusXM, please go to: www.siriusxm.com.

Source: SiriusXM

Media contact

Ron Gaskill
Stitcher 
[email protected] 

Amy Galleazzi
SiriusXM
[email protected]

SOURCE Sirius XM Holdings Inc.