Comedian Dax Shepard has signed an impressive deal with Amazon and its Wondery podcast platform for his show “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” and some other affiliated projects worth around $80 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The deal marks Shepard as the latest entertainer to score big bucks in the podcast arena.
“Expert” was previously produced in partnership with Spotify, but its new home will be on Wondery for at least the next two years. Amazon’s premium podcast network will distribute and sell advertising on the show as part of the exclusive deal, which is also said to include co-production duties on two unnamed podcasts to come, an annual live stream, video episodes of “Expert,” and a first-look option for other podcasts Shepard might come up with in the future. Wondery also plans to translate “Armchair Expert” into a multitude of different languages for distribution worldwide.
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Shepard’s not the only screen comedian turned podcaster to sign a blockbuster deal recently. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes of the popular “SmartLess” podcast signed a similar $100 million deal with SiriusXM back in February of this year. Sources also told WSJ that he’s also not the only high-profile podcaster being eyed for a new deal by Amazon, as the company is said to be circling the famous pro football brother duo Jason and Travis Kelce and their “New Heights” podcast. So, you may be reading about a similarly impressive deal for the Kelce brothers in the near future.
Shepard started “Armchair Expert” in 2018, and the show has since managed to snag some increasingly high-profile guests, including Bill Gates and Barack Obama. In 2021, it became a Spotify exclusive before now being poached by Amazon as Spotify has reportedly made moves to shed much of its most expensive podcast names.