Icon Awards

Will Ferrell Kicks off the Event with Hilarious Monologue about Podcasting Pre-internet

“The Dropout” Rallies Fans and Takes Home Highly Coveted Podcast of the Year Award

Conan O’Brien “Claws His Way into Radio” Winning Best Comedy Podcast for “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend”

NEW YORK – January 18, 2020 – The second annual iHeartRadio Podcast Awards brought the biggest names in podcasting together at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles last night, Friday, January 17. The live awards event honored the very best in podcasting spanning 30 categories and was broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations from across the country as well as live streamed online via LiveXLive. The evening celebrated the incredible talent and wide variety of leaders across the booming podcasting industry. 

The live event kicked off with a hilarious opening from renowned actor, comedian and producer, Will Ferrell. The comedian, who is behind iHeartRadio’s “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” reminisced about his love for podcasting and his instrumental role in the creation of the internet and audio streaming. The eventful night featured appearances by award nominees, an array of celebrity presenters and other special guests including Conan O’Brien, Sebastian Maniscalco, Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon, Becca Tilley, Brooke Burke, Brooks Laich, Dean Unglert, Eric Winter and Roselyn Sanchez, Gavin DeGraw, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Meghan King Edmonds, Nick Viall, Stassi Schroeder, Teddi Mellencamp and Yeardley Smith as well as podcast nominees, Aaron Mahnke, Holly Frey, Jake Brennan, Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, plus many more. In addition, the event also featured iHeartRadio top on-air personalities, Tanya Rad, Ellen K, The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy as well as Enrique Santos.

Event highlights include:

• Will Ferrell kicked-off the 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards with a sidesplitting opening - claiming that he created Apple in his garage and reinforcing just how much he loves Burbank, California.
• Stand-up comedian and actor, Sebastian Maniscalco and actress and writer Yeardley Smith, best known for her long-running role as Lisa Simpson on the animated television series “The Simpsons,” presented the Best Comedy Podcast award.
• Conan O’ Brien won Best Comedy Podcast for “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and had the audience roaring with laughter from his acceptance speech, letting the audience know how happy he is to have finally clawed his way to the top of the radio format.
• Gavin DeGraw, co-host of iHeartRadio’s “How Men Think” podcast, performed a live medley of his hits for the audience, which was streamed on LiveXLive.com.
• “The Dropout” scored the big win of the night with Podcast of the Year, a socially voted category.
• “The Breakfast Club” took home Best Pop Culture Podcast for the second year in a row.
• The iHeartRadio Podcast Awards honored the New York Times' “1619” podcast with the Icon Social Impact Award, NPR's “Life Kit” with the Icon Innovator Award and Tenderfoot TV's Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright with the Icon Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

Full list of category winners below:

Podcast of the Year:

• “The Dropout” (ABC News)

Icon Award - Innovator Award, Presented by Zoom:

• “Life Kit” (NPR)

Icon Award - Audible Audio Pioneer Award:

• Donald Albright & Payne Lindsey (Tenderfoot TV)

Icon Award - Social Impact Award:

• “1619” (The New York Times)

Best Crime Podcast:

• “Man in the Window” (L.A. Times/Wondery)

Best Pop Culture Podcast:

• “The Breakfast Club” (iHeartRadio)

Best Music Podcast:

• “Disgraceland” (iHeartRadio)

Best News Podcast:

• “The Daily” (The New York Times)

Best Sports & Recreation Podcast:

• “30 For 30” (ESPN) 

Best Comedy Podcast:

• “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” (Team Coco & Earwolf)

Best Political Podcast:

• “Pod Save the People” (Crooked Media)

Best Branded Podcast:

• “Songland” (NBC)

Best Kids & Family Podcast:

• “Story Pirates” (Gimlet)

Best Food Podcast:

• “The Dave Chang Show” (The Ringer & Majordomo Media)

Best Fiction Podcast:

• “Blackout” (Endeavor Audio & QCODE)

Best Beauty & Fashion Podcast:

• “Forever35” (Independent)

Best Overall Host - Female:

• Nora McInerny (American Public Media)

Best Overall Host - Male:

• Aaron Mahnke (Lore)

Best Business & Finance Podcast:

• “How I Built This with Guy Raz” (NPR)

Best Green Podcast:

• “Drilled” (Critical Frequency)

Best Travel Podcast:

• “Overheard at National Geographic” (National Geographic)

Best Spirituality & Religion Podcast: 

• “On Being with Krista Tippett” (On Being Studios)

Best Advice / Inspirational Podcast:

• “Why Won’t You Date Me? With Nicole Byer” (HeadGum)

Best TV & Film Podcast:

• “How Did This Get Made?” (Earwolf)

Best Spanish-Language Podcast:

• “Radio Ambulante” (NPR)

Best Ad Read Podcast:

• “Conan O’ Brien Needs A Friend” (Team Coco & Earwolf)

Best Science Podcast:

• “Hidden Brain” (NPR)

Best Technology Podcast:

• “Reply All” (Gimlet)

Best Wellness & Fitness Podcast:

• “Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel” (Esther Perel Global Media/Gimlet)

Best History Podcast:

• “Revisionist History” (Pushkin Industries)

The 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards is part of iHeartMedia’s roster of incredibly successful, nationally recognized events, including the iHeartRadio Music Festival, iHeartRadio Music Awards, the nationwide iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Concert Tour Presented by Capital One®, iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, iHeartCountry Festival, iHeartRadio ALTer Ego and iHeartRadio Wango Tango.

Executive producers for the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman and Conal Byrne for iHeartMedia and Augie Max Vargas.

NEW YORK – December 23, 2019 – iHeartMedia, the No. 1 commercial podcast publisher globally, announced today the recipients of the three Icon Awards at the 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards streaming live Friday, January 17 at 8 p.m. PT via a LiveXLive stream and on iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide from the iHeartRadio Theater Los Angeles. The second annual event will honor the New York Times’ “1619” podcast with the Social Impact Award, NPR’s “Life Kit” podcast with the Innovator Award Presented by Zoom and Tenderfoot TV’s Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright with the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

The iHeartRadio Podcast Icon Awards pay tribute to the creators, organizations and podcasts that have made groundbreaking contributions to podcasting’s expanding role in today’s popular culture.

“We’re thrilled to honor ‘1619,’ ‘Life Kit’ and Tenderfoot TV as this year’s iHeartRadio Podcast Icon winners,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartPodcast Network. “From history to true crime to everyday guidance, their work is as diverse as it is trailblazing, and they make it easy to understand why podcasts have become a must-listen for millions of people each and every day.”

The New York Times’ “1619” podcast, recipient of the 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Social Impact Award, is a five-episode series that is part of a major initiative by the newspaper to observe the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery and reframe the history of the United States by understanding that 1619 was the nation’s true founding. The podcast series is hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, an award-winning journalist who serves as a domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine focusing on racial injustice.

The 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Innovator Award Presented by Zoom winner, NPR’s “Life Kit,” provides listeners with practical information and guidance to help them improve their lives. Launched in December 2018, “Life Kit” is designed for search as it seeks to reach beginners and those with more knowledge on topics that include personal finance, health and wellness, and parenting. The podcast episodes are aggregated in topical playlists for deep dives. “Life Kit” is produced by NPR, which received the first-ever iHeartRadio Podcast Pioneer Award in 2019.

The 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Audible Audio Pioneer Award recipients – director/independent filmmaker, Payne Lindsey, and music industry veteran, Donald Albright – paved the way for true crime podcasts. They launched Tenderfoot TV in 2016 with their first podcast, “Up and Vanished,” which showed that an aspiring filmmaker/musician could take an unsolved murder and turn it into a compelling story and hit podcast – with the alleged killer ultimately confessing due to the podcast investigation. The award-winning podcast has received over 330 million downloads and created the blueprint for Tenderfoot TV’s other No. 1 critically acclaimed podcasts, “Atlanta Monster,” “To Live and Die in LA,” “Culpable” and “Sworn.” “To Live and Die in LA,” which received 50 million downloads in 2019, was also named Podcast of the Year by the Associated Press. Since its launch in 2016, Tenderfoot TV has surpassed 500 million downloads as a company, including 185 million downloads in 2019 alone.

The 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards will honor the most entertaining and innovative podcasts of 2019 and will span 30 categories, celebrating the incredible talent and wide variety of leaders across the booming podcasting industry. Nominees were announced on November 12 and include podcasts from all creators, distributors and platforms with a panel of blue-ribbon podcast industry leaders, creatives and visionaries determining the winners across categories including Music, Comedy, Crime, News, Sports & Recreation, Food, Business & Finance and more. Podcast fans themselves will once again decide the winner of the Best Podcast of the Year award through social voting on Twitter through January 10. Select category winners will be announced during the live show and stream filled with unique celebrations at the iHeartRadio Theater Los Angeles. For a full list of categories, visit iHeartPodcastAwards.com.

The 2020 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards is part of iHeartMedia’s roster of incredibly successful, nationally recognized events including the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the nationwide iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Concert Tour, iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, iHeartCountry Festival, iHeartRadio ALTer Ego and iHeartRadio Wango Tango. Executive producers for the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman and Conal Byrne for iHeartMedia and Augie Max Vargas.