Reminding everyone that we used to really care about Serial, the Peabody Awards announced today that they are bestowing honors on Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder’s extremely popular This American Life spinoff. Calling it “an audio game-changer” and “the first unquestionably mainstream podcast,” the awards-granting body said that Serial “is the first of its kind to win a Peabody.” (Individual This American Life stories have won Peabodys in the past, but Serial is the first multi-episode podcast to win the award.)
The Peabodys also noted that, in general, “New players and platforms elbowed into the ranks of the usual News and Radio suspects” this year. This meant another step on Vice’s road from snarky free magazine to legitimate news organization with a sideline in snarky free magazines, as Vice News won two Peabodys for its investigative reports The Islamic State and Last Chance High. The old media was also represented, with awards going to CNN for its coverage of delays in care at VA hospitals and last year’s kidnapping of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by the terrorist group Boko Haram. NBC News, MSNBC, the Scripps Washington Bureau, several NPR affiliates and NPR-affiliated shows, and an ABC affiliate in Austin, Texas were also honored for their reporting.
The Peabodys have been announcing their winners in waves this year—the television honorees were announced last week, and the the documentary winners will be announced April 23. The A.V. Club has yet to win a Peabody for its podcasting efforts, but we’re sure it’ll happen eventually. In the meantime, statuettes will be handed out on May 31 at a ceremony hosted by Portlandia’s Fred Armisen, himself a two-time Peabody winner.