Wondery Eyes TV Deal for Hit Podcast ‘Over My Dead Body’

Company behind “Dirty John” also plans to hire in-house development executive for future TV adaptations

Wondery
Wondery

Wondery is eyeing “high-level showrunners” to adapt “Over My Dead Body,” a podcast about the murder of Florida State University law professor Dan Markel, for television. The podcast was released in February and was No.1 on the Apple podcast charts.

“Our podcast miniseries like ‘Dirty John,’ ‘Dr. Death’ or ‘Over My Dead Body’ are built like serialized, character-driven dramas. They just happen to be non-fiction podcasts. That’s one of the reasons why television showrunners — and audiences — are drawn to them,” Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez said in a statement.

This continues the company’s continued movement into the television space.

FX nabbed the rights to “Gladiator,” a podcast about former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, earlier this year.

“Dirty John” the 2017 podcast about a con artist who tricked women into giving him money, debuted to favorable reviews on Bravo last year. “Dr. Death,” a podcast about a neurosurgeon who was charged with gross malpractice and sentenced to life in prison, is in development with Universal Cable Productions. “Business Wars,” a podcast on the world’s biggest business rivalries, is also being packaged as a series, with the pilot being written by “Mad Men” writer Janet Leahy.

Wondery had a strong 2018, with hit podcasts “Business Wars” and “Dr. Death” receiving more than 10 million downloads each. “Over My Dead Body” has averaged a million podcast downloads per episode, a Wondery spokesperson said.

Deadline was to first report.

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