Sony Music Entertainment’s new podcast venture with Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer — named Three Uncanny Four Productions — has made several key hires and plans to debut its first shows in 2020.
Variety first reported on Sony Music’s deal with podcast vets Davidson, who serves as CEO of Three Uncanny Four, and Mayer, who is chief operating officer, to form the JV.
Three Uncanny Four is in the process of setting up offices in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. It has gone into production on several new series and soon will be announcing a slate of programming for 2020. Sony Music, in its first dive into the burgeoning podcast space, inked a deal in May with Davidson, a New Yorker staff writer and co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money,” and Mayer, who has worked at Stitcher, Panoply Media and WNYC.
Initial hires at Three Uncanny Four include: showrunner Dan Bobkoff, formerly of Business Insider, where he created and hosted podcast “Household Name,” who also previously worked at NPR and American Public Media’s “Marketplace”; senior producer T. J. Raphael, formerly of Slate, WNYC and PRI; and senior producer Khrista Rypl, who produced “The Shrink Next Door” from Wondery and has previously worked with ESPN, Gimlet Media, The Atlantic, WNYC and American Public Media. Three Uncanny Four also has hired junior researcher Jack Panyard.
For now, Three Uncanny Four is mum on the specific shows it is producing. Previously, Davidson and Mayer said the company’s programming would span multiple genres in both scripted and unscripted formats, and include both weekly series and limited series. Sony Music owns 50% of the venture and is investing an undisclosed sum. Davidson and Mayer each hold a 25% stake in Three Uncanny Four.