How Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes SmartLess Proved Podcasts Can Mean Big

Publish date: 2024-08-01

“SmartLess” began as a passion project during the pandemic and quickly turned into a multimillion-dollar empire for Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes.

The high-profile trio launched the “SmartLess” podcast, which features their banter with fellow comedians and celebrities, in July 2020, little envisioning how big a media franchise it would become.

It wasn’t that surprising for stars to venture into the booming podcast business at that time. Fellow celebrities including Rob Lowe and Zach Braff also launched podcasts around that time, and in late 2019, “The Office” co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey successfully released “Office Ladies,” a re-watch podcast for the much-adored series. With major media companies like Amazon, Apple and Spotify amping up investments into the original audio-content industry, podcasts were becoming increasingly enticing to celebrities.

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The instantaneous success of “SmartLess” was a surprise, however. In less than a year, the show had millions of listeners, making it one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S. — a rare feat for a podcast under a year old.

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The trio’s ability to not only book Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler and Reese Witherspoon, but also get candid interviews was one reason for the initial success of “SmartLess.” But the show’s secret sauce was the witty, personal banter between Arnett, Bateman and Hayes before, during and after the group interviews. Bateman’s frustration over a golf outing, Arnett being too embarrassed to admit that his “Long Island” summer home was located in the exclusive town of East Hampton and Hayes’ rush to explain any inside baseball entertainment references to his sister Tracey in Wisconsin endeared listeners.

CAA signed the podcast in May 2021 and the dealmaking soon kicked in. Late the following month, with nearly 50 episodes of “SmartLess” featuring guests including Kamala Harris, Paul McCartney and Billie Eilish already released, Amazon inked exclusive rights to the podcast for a reported $80 million. The deal, which called for subsidiary Wondery to exclusively sell ads on it in addition to distributing “SmartLess,” was brokered by CAA and Wondery’s UnJu Paik, Lee Goldberg and Jenn Cron for Wondery; Sam Fischer and Jamey Cohen at Ziffren Brittenham; Tom Hoberman, Adam Kaller and Ryan Pastorek at Hansen, Jacobson; and Robert Offer and Shelby Weiser at Sloane, Offer.

“It was the first big deal done at Wondery with A-list comedic talent, which brought significant scale to Wondery’s ad-revenue business as well as early access and ad-free benefits to Wondery+ and Amazon Music,” says Paik, Wondery’s head of global business affairs, licensing
& distribution. 

Paik explains that “SmartLess” stood apart from fellow celebrity podcasts for a few reasons, including the genuine friendship between the Arnett, Bateman and Hayes as well and the show’s format, where one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. Wondery also saw the enormous growth potential to spin off into other mediums and brand extensions. “We wanted to grow the fanbase and bring this show to new audiences around the world.”

The trio soon announced they were going on a six-city North American live podcast tour and Discovery+ promptly ordered two 75-minute documentary-style specials that would follow the actors during each leg of the tour. Following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the specials turned into “SmartLess: On the Road,” a six-episode docuseries that debuted in 2023 on Max.

Before too long, Arnett, Bate-man and Hayes formed SmartLess Media, a company that produces additional podcasts. Under the deal brokered by Wondery and CAA, unveiled in December 2022, Wondery handles distribution and ad sales for all SmartLess Media shows. In 2023, the new banner released “Bad Dates” with Jameela Jamil; sports show “Owned,” hosted by former NBA star Rex Chapman; and a “Will & Grace” rewatch show “Just Jack & Will” with Hayes and Eric McCormack. 

The company is led by the acting trio and president Richard Korson. Its mission: to create comedy content “for the podcast space and beyond,” encompassing limited series, short-form content and live entertainment. 

“‘SmartLess’ is not just any celebrity podcast,” says Paik of the audio program that launched the expanding empire. “Not only does it have A-list comedic talent but the deep camaraderie between Jason, Sean and Will is the special sauce that audiences love.” 

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